916143
by TazeeWockee
Summary: Taz lives her jabbafied life while Nikki struggles to get over her fear. It's THAT simple.
1. Hello 916

Taz had a strong feeling that she was going to like Del Paso the moment she was awake enough to look out of the cab window and take a glimpse of her new "home". It wasn't like an extravagant big-estates and lush gardens type of scene but it had that homey feeling to it that she couldn't help but gravitate to. Most of the houses were determinedly small, actually, like they were made that way for a reason, but they looked picture perfect from where she was watching. The wooden mini terraces, the white picket fences, the little but full lily gardens reminded her of what she had been missing out on while living in busy, busy New York. She felt a contented flutter in her heart as she leaned back in her seat, struck with this pleasant, pivotal realization that yes, she did make the right decision to move here. The car's engine continued to hum along in a soft, hypnotic sound that kept Taz's eyes half-closed. The flight took a lot of her energy (like other flights normally do! UGH!) and now, she just wanted to get to wherever it was she need to get to and drop her body on a bed already. Surprisingly, her answers were answered immediately afterwards as the cab came to a halt in front a medium-sized, garden-seamed house. She gasped and rushed to wipe the sleep from eye, gazing at the breath-taking scenery in front of her. Yes, she was the melodramatic type who would cry over sappy TV soaps and romance pocket books, and this wonderful painting-like house definitely wasn't an exception. It was just so… pretty. There was an uncomfortable twist in the pit of her stomach as she paid the cab driver and got out of the car. Her hands were sweating, too. Geez. Right now was the last time she should be feeling the butterflies. She was meeting, for the very first time, her brother's semi-friend, semi-girlfriend who was generous enough to offer her a place to stay as soon as she decided to move and openly broadcasted such a decision; it sort of hurt her pride and the "self-dependence" route that she was going for, but in the end, she had to swallow all of that 'cuz really who, in their right mind would refuse to a free rent? WHO? A free rent to a paradise home like this, no less. 'Cause she had to admit, too, she was damn broke. _Pull yourself together, bitch _she told herself over and over and over again while pulling at the strap of her heavy luggage bag and walked along the cemented pathway (with pink-and-yellow flowers margining around it, whoa!) with unsteady legs. _You can't mess this up. _She rang the doorbell once, twice and then thrice, until she sensed a small commotion inside. _Crap, this is it._ And it _was _it. The door opened and a wide-eyed woman in her late-twenties appeared before her eyes. She was beautiful… and so smiling that Taz couldn't help but smile back.

"Tazeana?" She asked with so much excitement that Taz forgot what proper ethics was all of a sudden. The beautiful stranger (stranger, because technically this was their first meeting) opened her long arms and pulled Taz into them. She hugged back, a little bit surprised but one hundred per cent happy.

"Gracie?" was all Taz could say when they pulled apart. Stupid_. Of course she's Gracie, twerp. _

"Yes, that's me. I'm so glad you're finally here." She said, gesturing to take the heavy bag from Taz's arms.

"Oh, no, I'm okay." Taz said in the most respectful way she could, immediately liking this woman.

Gracie gave out that all-knowing smile, like she understood how proud and stubborn 18-year-olds could get and wrapped an arm around her. "Come inside. I'm sure it was a long flight. You must be drained."

_Drained is the word, all right_. "Yeah, I'm sorta tired." Sorta? She could collapse any moment now, and if it weren't for Gracie's gentle but strong arm keeping her upright, she would.

As they got inside, there was no way Taz could stop the amazement from escaping her lips. It was just perfect: the child-friendly wooden floor, the squeaky clean carpet leading to the living room, the comfortable-looking couches to the right, and the delicious smell of kitchen to the left. She seriously wanted to do a happy dance at that moment. She felt so home. It was nothing like her pathetic, puny, messy New York apartment. This was 3rd grade mode when she would get off the school bus, run carelessly to the porch in her Girls Scout uniform, open the door and see something like this. Exactly like this. It was nostalgic, more than anything else.

"Let me show you your room." Gracie offered, breaking Taz from her reverie.

Taz's room was the room any girl with a normal psyche would love and wish for. It had a queen-sized bed and this gi-normous closet, which got Taz to thinking if she even had enough clothes to fit in there. The best part of all was the wall-length window, covered in lilac curtains that she could pull back any time she wanted, that overlooked the whole neighborhood. This was good life right here. She thought and returned Gracie's do-you-like-it look with a look that said so much more. She loved it.

"Thank you, Gracie. I can't wait to get settled." Taz said, dropping her luggage on the floor and sitting on the bed. HER bed, she corrected herself. "The room's more than I can ask for." She looked around, as if proving her point.

"Oh, don't mention it. While you're here, feel as free as you want."

"Thanks." Really, that was all that was there to be said.

"Now, I'll leave you to do your business and if there's anything you need, I'll be right down." Gracie said kindly. "And um, as soon as you're ready to come down, I'll be preparing pancakes, maybe you'd like some to fill your stomach."

Oh, yeah. "Thanks, Grace. Will do." Taz mentally smiled, absentmindedly placing her hand on her growling tummy. The dragon was angry.

As soon as Gracie left, Taz took a moment to revel in the grateful warmth in her heart, laying half of her body on the bed, thanking God for guiding her to the light, her brother for caring, Gracie for being perfectly nice, and herself… well, for coming up with the idea of moving out in the first place. And then that was it for her. She got up, unpacked her clothes – clean and unwashed alike – and rushed to the bathroom to get a lukewarm shower. Even the bathroom was nice! Yee. Purrr-fect.

Gracie was preparing Spaghetti in the kitchen when Taz got down for some food. She could smell the rich smell of tomato sauce being boiled in a pot and boy, did her stomach really have to do a frenzied kick in there?

"I hope you like pasta." Gracie said fondly, stirring, "The kids are in love with it. And it's Spaghetti week so that's what we'll be having for the next 3 days."

Right, the kids. Taz's brother did mention that Gracie had twins. Mmm.. she suddenly had a fleeting question whether they would take it easy on her or be pain in the asses like normal children would and give her a hard time? But she loved kids, so this shouldn't be problem. Huh. But why was she worried? "No, of course not, we're practically raised in pasta our whole lives." She answered as soon as she could remember the question.

"Good, then."

Taz helped a little bit with table-setting, worrying at the same time if she was placing the plates and the spoons and forks the right way. Gracie seemed the total expert when it came to table manners (actually just manners, in general) and Taz was scared if she was doing it all wrong in front of the expert. Gracie wasn't commenting on anything, so that was a good sign. There were four placemats, meaning four people were about to eat, meaning Taz had to pray to God nothing would fall apart. She wanted to get along with everyone in this house, be they kids or adults. She just wanted this to work.

Taz and Gracie moved around the kitchen between small talks about school, work, Taz's brother, political views and even some of Taz's personal business (i.e., lovelife, insights about the future, and all that kinda drama.) Normally, Taz wouldn't feel comfortable sharing all this with a stranger but maybe that was it, Gracie didn't seem like a stranger at all. Talking to her was a piece of cake. They were on the same page.

"Hey, Grace, I don't think I've ever told you how thankful I am for this." Taz, finally feeling the courage to go all mellow, decided to mention, when she was pulling soup bowls from the cupboard, hoping she could balance on her tiptoes.

Gracie looked at her as if she was crazy. "Oh, dear."

"Really, I am. I don't know how I'm gonna be able to pay you for this someday – but.."

"Hey, hey, hey, young lady. I'm doing this because your brother and I are practically family, so that automatically you are, too. I did this because I want to help."

"But why? If you don't mind my asking?" It was a stupid and risky question to ask, but she had to know.

Gracie sighed and gave her a tired look that meant this wasn't the first time she had been asked about this. This was borderline adoption and of course, it would seem questionable why a young, successful (divorced, but still) woman like her would agree to this kind of deal. She already had two kids of her own as it was, why would she want to add another knick-knack to the bunch? "Because I want to have a new face around. Having you here is a pleasure, Taz."

"Mmm." Taz nodded her head, somewhat convinced, somewhat still confused.

Gracie looked like she was about to add something when tiny footsteps could be heard from the door. "The tiny devils are here." She smiled cheerfully and rushed to the living room.

Tiny devils turned out to be identical 6-year-olds. Cute, identical 6-year-olds. Gracie hugged each of them and tiny, cute arms clung around her. It was warming to witness it, made her miss her mom a little bit.

"Kids, I want you meet your Auntie Taz, the one I was telling you about."

Two pairs of blue, wide eyes blinked scrutinizingly at her, free of any emotion – just plain, raw curiosity. They would have been so cute if they smiled a little bit. Oh, boy.

"As in the Devil?" One asked, and the replica turned to her mother for confirmation.

Great. The Tazmanian Devil joke again. When would she ever hear the end of it?

"No, honey. She's Aunt Tazeana, not Tazmania." Gracie explained dotingly. "And she'll be staying with us from now on."

The girl with the unpony-tailed hair looked at her with unimpressed, bored eyes. "We want Santa."

"Well, Aunt Taz can be Santa, too."

What? As if?

"Really?" All of a sudden they looked at their mother, amazed by the seemingly wondrous information. "Is she like Trevor the Frog who could turn into a frog and a bird, too?" Now the one in a pony tail asked.

Gracie nodded her head enthusiastically. Oh, boy. One more time. Oh, boy.

"Wow!" They both said to each other in unison. "Cooooool."

That was so much better. They _were _adorable. "Now, may I know your names?" Taz asked.

Girl in ponytail proudly presented herself and said "My name is Abby. I'm 6 years old and when I grow up I wanna be a princess."

"Mmm… well, who doesn't, honey?" Taz asked her, loving the cuteness. "And what about you, little miss?"

"My name is Carly. I'm 6 years old, and I wanna be an explorer of the wild someday." The other one said.

"Well, you go follow that dream of yours." Taz said, brushing the little girl's silky wavy hair. "It's a pleasure meeting you, girls."

Gracie stooped down and gave her daughters a telling look. "And what do you say?" She asked, sounding all maternal all of a sudden.

There were a few minutes of silence as Taz held her breath and waited for the girls to say something. Two pairs of big, blue eyes met and then landed on Taz. And tiny voices spoke, "Will you have dinner with us, Santa?"

For the first time that day, Taz burst out laughing, scooping the one in the ponytail, Abby, from the floor to her arms. "Why, I would love to."

Gracie smiled in obvious relief and took the Carly's hand in hers, leading all four of them to the kitchen. Abby squirmed inside Taz's arms and ordered to be put down, running expertly to her designated seat, right across Taz's. The girls crowed in delight as soon as Gracie laid the platter down on the table. "BIGSHETTI!" their identical, loud voices echoed around the room. Carly was about to reach over when Gracie stopped her with an authorative look "uh-uh. Wash your hands first." The girls pouted like puppies as the two of them slid out of their seats, racing to the sink in a frenzied rush, theirs skirts flying with the wind. Taz watched them fondly as they played with the water, sharing a giggle and singing the theme song from that Barney movie. All Taz's worries evaporated like they didn't even exist in the first place. She couldn't believe she had been somewhat nervous to meet these cute little creatures. Right then she decided that she loved EVERYTHING about this house, no more but's and what-if's whatsoever.


	2. Breakfast Like Always

One more ring and Nikki swear she'd throw the irritating alarm clock across the room which, if she thought about it, like REALLY thought about it, was wrong in itself because that clock served a purpose, and that was to keep her lazy ass out of bed already. But it was a cold Sunday morning, and her bed was warm and cozy and she just wasn't ready to face the loud, hectic world outside yet. Oh, but her brother begged to disagree.

"Nichole!" His voice on the other side of the door sounded as though he was pissed in the slightest bit, but then again, Joe was never the one to throw a fit, anyway. "It's either you turn that alarm clock off or I will. It'll wake the neighbors up."

Like Nikki cared if she woke the neighbors. She cared, though, about what little sanity she had that this irritatingly loud alarm was mercilessly killing by the second. "I'm on it." She mumbled groggily against her Spongebob pillow. Too lazy to turn her body the whole way around, she let her hand feel and crawl its way to the bedside table where the Powerpuff alarm clock sat, that went off just then. "UGH!" Nikki grumbled for the hundredth time that morning and once caught by her irritated hand, the poor thing was sent flying into the air. And somewhere in the corners of her room it landed and somewhat crashed in pieces, if the sound of glass breaking was any indication. Like she could care any less, she'd buy a new one. Oh, but wait she was broke, wasn't she? That was why she had to force her body to get up because she had to work. Work as an eatery waitress. Great. Who works on a Sunday anyway? Of course, penniless kids like her, who else? It'd be so easy to ask money from her brother, if only she didn't have such a burden called pride and if only she didn't want that beautiful Canon camera too darn much.

"Hey, Nikki, aren't you gonna be late for work or something?" It was her brother's voice again over the sizzling sounds of whatever he was cooking in the kitchen downstairs. Sluggishly, she slid herself out of bed, half-moaning, half-whining. Whatever got her on her toes was the realization that her tummy was empty and angry. And Chef Joe's superb breakfast might just take all these negative vibes away.

The "downstairs" scene was pretty much like it was every day. The TV turned in the living room low, Isabelle, the little kid, playing and chasing an imaginary airplane around, in her usual hyper self, and Joe all panicky and rushing in the kitchen like the world depended on him. Nikki sat herself in one of the stools around the island and gave her brother a quick, acknowledging, good-morning glance. "So how was the show last night?" Nikki asked, grabbing a mug and pouring herself a coffee from the pot.

"Mmm." was all he said, his back on her. Okay, maybe now was not exactly the right time to ask him a particularly complicated question that needed a particularly complicated answer; he was running after time. "It was okay; it was a madhouse, actually." He supplied, turning around from the counter and balancing the plates that contained the bacon and fried eggs on his arms. Nikki automatically scrambled up from her seat to help him, giving him a reprimanding look that said "You ain't superman, you know!" Joe let out one long wave of breath and let Nikki do the rest of the work. "So madhouse, eh?" Nikki asked, placing the dishes on their rightful places.

Her brother and six of his friends formed this little dance crew that no one except family really knew about. It was like a secret society composed of members that were college professors and medical technologists and chefs by day and mysterious, masked dancers by night. They wore white masks, so no one knew about their identities, which was neither an advantage nor a disadvantage. The fact of the matter is was that they were awesome dancers, and they put on amazing shows at different clubs every weekend for those fans who were willing to follow them around the city.

"Yep. The crowd loved us. Indigo Nightclub was on fiya!" Joe bragged proudly before taking a sip of coffee from his Tazmanian mug. Joe was fond of Devil, for some reason. "One fan was actually brave enough to take her top off and throw it at Phil."

Nikki's eyes snapped up suddenly from her plate at the sound of Phil's name. Phil was well, Phil was her brother's friend and well, something more, if she had the courage to say so herself. Mmm. A fan being wild in front of Phil? On the one hand, it was possible that the girl was just drunk… and got out of control. On the other, well… maybe Phil was being his flirtatious little self and… hold up, why was she overthinking this? It wasn't as though she gave a damn at all. So what if that girl went topless for Phil? So what if she threw her top at him? So what if he liked it? Mmm… She gotta stop. She gotta stop now, otherwise Joe might read her mind and be all…

"Hey, you okay?" See? He was good.

"Yeah, of course. Why shouldn't I be?"

"Nothing, you got a little pensive for a while back there." He said with a knowing smirk on his face.

"Pensive?" Nikki back-fired defensively. "What do you mean 'pensive'?"

"I mean, you know, thoughtful and…"

"Of course I know what 'pensive' is… Just because you graduated with straight A's doesn't mean…" Her tone of voice was rising…

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hey, hey, chill it, Nik. Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed." Joe was smiling secretly behind his mug though.

"Don't think I can't see your evil grin from here." And Nikki was smiling, too.

"Anyway…" Joe set his mug said, and sank back in his chair, looking nothing short of impish, "The security hauled her off the room. And boy was it scandalous."

"How scandalous?"

"I'd rather not tell."

"Oh, come on. What happened?"

"_Oh, youmeanhowdidPhilreacttoit_?" He spat out quickly, almost inaudibly.

"Wha—" Nikki's eyebrows knotted together. "Why would you assume that I'd be interested in Phil's…" Nikki stopped in midsentence when the smile on her brother's lips grew wider. She folded her arms across the span of her chest and glared at him.

"What?" He shrugged in false innocence, the naughty grin still plastered on his face relieving some much more. "Belles!" And then of course, like all conversations his brother had intriguingly wanted to be left hanging, this one had to end, too.

With tiny pitter-patters against the carpeted floor, Isabelle, Joe's 5-year-old daughter, rushed into the kitchen and went straight to the space between her daddy's legs. Joe lifted her right arm and sniffed her armpit and playfully screwed his face up, "Mmph. Smells like vinegar mixed with mayonnaise mixed with bottled pickles." He did his funny voice, putting on a scary face. "You're good enough to eat." Isabelle giggled helplessly as her dad nuzzled his nose against the fold of her underarms, sniffing her downy skin rowdily. "Tickles!" Isabelle screamed, her tiny hands gripping Joe's hair and trying to push him off of her armpit. Her shrill voice made Nikki's head throb like a bitch.

Nikki shook her head at them. These two idiots deserved each other, she thought, and began eating.

Joe and Isabelle did deserve each other, and somehow, deep inside her, if she cared enough to dig up, ('cause really, she wasn't the sentimental type) Nikki was devotedly thankful for that. 'Cause all Joe and Isabelle had was each other. The mom had long been lost in the picture. The unconscientious bitch, as Nikki had decided to call her. Joe's served as Belle's both mom and dad, and in Nikki's perception, he was doing a good job. Growing up together with her, Joe had always been the nurturing type and Nikki knew that for a fact because Joe would always be the one to wash and put dressing on her wound whenever she caught an accident, or the one who'd rush to the pharmacy to get her the painkillers she needed for her dysmenorrhea. Hell, even if Nikki wasn't crazy enough to it say out loud, she knew in her heart Joe was still taking care of her now, even in her 20th year in this world. Her - who should have been independent from family support by now. But Joe was Joe. And family to him was the greatest gold. So no matter what the law on the "if your kid is 18 and above" issue states, Joe kept her in his Sac home, and well, gave her the 50-50 freedom, slash, dependence that was convenient for her at the moment. And yeah, okay, Nikki could admit, maybe sometimes they were each other's pain in the ass, but they did care about each other. Albeit subconsciously.

"I feel like pooping." Innocently little Belle said, while Nikki chewed her piece of bacon adoringly. Great. She was enjoying her food and the kid talks about shit. Jesus. . She stopped in mid-chew and glowered menacingly at the pouting child.

Joe laughed and high-fived with his daughter, the ass, taking her hand and leading her to the rest room.

"Burn in hell!" Nikki screamed with her mouth full, her voice muffled.

Joe's laughter grew louder as they disappeared further down the hall.


	3. Gracie and Her Stephord Syndrome

It had already been almost two weeks but Taz dared not to go out of the house and "mingle" with the rest of the neighborhood yet like Gracie had advised her to. Gracie had pretty much been _indirectly_ persuading her to loosen up a little bit and have balls to meet, according to her, the "warm" people of Del Paso. But Taz was a pussy, always had been. And she wasn't afraid to admit it. She was born to be the shy type, and she always preferred the peaceful silence from being alone to the rowdy fuss that goes on in a crowd. She knew, however, that sooner or later she had to cope with this antisocial attitude and start the seeing the fun in being "out there." It wasn't like she disliked meeting new friends and all, but… it _was _hard to get over that awkward stranger phase; she just wished she'd magically be friends with these people right away without having to go through such phase. Keyword: Magically. Meaning, things pretty much didn't work like that.

Gracie was planning on taking her to grocery with her today. Which, she expected, meant meeting _them._ People. Faces. Hi's and Hello's. Shakehands. Discomfort. Oh, God. She refused, of course.

Taz was diligently vacuuming the living room floor when Gracie went up to her the second time. "It's not a request, Taz. It's an order."

"Huh?" Feigning cluelessness was not Taz's forte.

"Oh, come on. You've been trapping yourself in the house for days now. You don't go out, you don't say hello to neighbors…"

"I just haven't had the chance." Taz said over the whirring of the machine.

"Mph. So if you did, you will?"

"Will what?"

"Will meet them?" Gracie told her like she was talking to an eight-year-old. No, five.

"Gracie, I don't see the point." Taz scoffed. "I mean, eventually, I _will_ get to meet them one by one if I run into them in like the pharmacy, or in the town park or something. I just… I don't think it's something that should be forced."

"But that's exactly what I'm talking about Taz. When exactly are you planning to see some sun? You've been under the roof for God knows how long."

"It's been twelve days, Gracie."

"And counting."

"Oh, come on, school doesn't start till mid-August, and I just don't see why I should be out just for the heck of being out."

"Maybe because you are a normal teenager who is single and ready to mingle?"

Okay, Taz had to laugh at that. "Single and ready to mingle? That's… That's funny, Grace."

"What? I am serious, kiddo. This-" Gracie gestured at her, "what you're doing right now – this isn't exactly what kids your age do. Kids like to go shopping, bar-hopping, I don't know. You, on the other hand, are being…"

"Being what exactly?" Taz's voice became a little defensive.

"There must be something wrong. Are you homesick or something?"

"Homesick? Gracie, I'm eighteen, not twelve. Besides, there's nothing wrong. I just know what my priorities are and how to sort them out." Taz said in a tone that said this conversation was over.

Oh, but Gracie didn't hear such tone. "Oh, Taz. I know that. It's just… I have to ask, are you having fun?"

"Having fun?" Now, where was Gracie going with this?

"Yeah, like, are you… is the new environment… is it…" Gracie looked like she was struggling to look for the right words.

"You mean, am I like culture-shocked or something?"

"Yeah, I guess you could put it that way."

"Look, Gracie, for the past years of my life ever since my parents got separated and moved to Rome or Madrid, or wherever fancy, I've been from Pasadena to Salt Lake City, to Buffalo, to New York. Trust me. Homesickness? Culture-shock? Those are the least of my problems right now."

"Really?" Gracie asked, sounding so awed.

"Oh, Grace. I came from New York, not Mars."

"I just think it'd be nice if the neighbors knew I'm having a new face around." Taz felt guilty at the pleading genuineness in Gracie's voice.

Taz turned off the vacuum cleaner, finally, and placed a gentle hand on Gracie's slumped shoulder. "And they will. Trust me. The time will come. I'm just… I'm a scaredy-cat, okay? If I don't come to them, let them come to me."

Gracie gave her a convinced look. "You should have just admitted that you're shy."

Taz simply smiled sheepishly and turned the machine back on again.

"Um, yeah, seeing as you've made your plans for the day, and going to the grocery with me is not one of them, I guess I should be on my way. I'll just leave you with the kids." Gracie grabbed her keys from the table and sauntered off to the door.

"Yeah, sure!" Taz had to louden her voice to compete with the amplified sound of the cleaner. "You take care!"

Taz swore she heard Gracie said something back but she could no longer hear whatever it was if only for the God awful loud machine noise piercing into her eardrums. She wanted to ask again, though, but she could already faintly hear the sound of Gracie's car coming alive in the garage, so she shrugged and muttered "never mind."


	4. The Annoying Three

It was a Friday afternoon, for crying out loud. But here Nikki was, collecting dishes and orders from tables where strangers, mean, rich strangers sat. She should be out, with her friends, partying. But no; Sylvia, who originally had this shift, just had to go somewhere "urgent" and asked her, Nikki aka the girl whose shift wasn't till Sunday, to take her place to save her ass from getting fired. And over the phone, too, how convenient was that? Nikki couldn't refuse even if she strongly wanted to because Sylvia had hung up on her even before the bitch could even finish saying that shrill, assuming "thanks!" of hers. But Nikki wasn't the treacherous kind. Maybe she disliked Sylvia for a number of reasons, but Nikki was doing this for her regardless. Nikki rolled her eyes at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Okay, maybe she was partly doing this for her own benefit as well. Because she was also half-hoping that, well, maybe, someone of some considerable significance, might, by any chance, decide to stop by at the café tonight. Now she was being stupid. _Nikki, are you crazy? This madness has got to stop!_

But it didn't. If the redness on her cheeks at the memory of his meaningful smiles at her was any indication. OH-MY-GOD.

"Hey, kiddo, what's your lazy bum doing back here?" The sound of Linda's, her too all-knowing boss, voice made her skin jump. "We've got lots of customers waiting to be served outside. Chop, chop!"

Nikki sighed, the exhaustion following at its wake. One thing she hated about her job was getting to be ordered around by people – not-too-kind people, if she was being generous. She harrumphed secretly and strolled back to the kitchen without giving her boss a second look, seizing the meal for table 5.

The customers at table 5 happened to be kids she knew from school. Sophomores. And the look on their faces as they saw her in her waitress uniform would be the last thing to pass for impressed. This was exactly why she refused working on a Friday night. Because of rich, judgmental kids like these. Geez.

"We didn't know you work here." One girl had the nerve to comment.

"Yeah, well, now you do." Nikki spat out quickly, forgetting her manners and walking absentmindedly to another table as fast as her feet could take her. And she ended up on table 8. And the sight of people in Table 8 took her momentary stress away. Wow. Was it a shocker. They were Phil, Phi and Ben – three of his brother's closest buddies. She always knew she accepted this favor for a reason – and it was staring her at the face right now, like literally.

"Hey, waitress." Ben, the deep-voiced Korean guy, signaled her to come closer with his come-hither fingers, in that feigned mocking charade he always put up around her. That cocky ass. He was cute, though. Nikki couldn't resist but play along.

"What is it, sir?" She asked politely, fishing out her pen and paper from her apron pockets.

"We'd like to order a glass of truth and a plate of answer as to why you, Nichole Katrina, are waitressing for Petey's." Ben said, still in his fake bossy voice.

"A glass of truth and a plate of answers it is. Will that be all, sir?" Nikki asked, again, in that courteous manner that all of them slaves were told to do so here. Albeit forced.

"Seriously, Nikki, wow." Phi, as adorable as himself, opened his mouth in awe, fingering her apron like it was a piece of golden shawl or something. "I mean, I knew you worked here and all, but knowing and seeing are too different things. I'm in wonderland right now."

"Oh, get out of here." Nikki rolled her eyes at their lovestruck faces. "I just need extra cash, okay? This is no big deal."

"Wow. Did we just hear her say that?" Ben looked at his two friends in turn. "That working is no big deal?"

"Hey, I'm right here, Ben."

"Has Joe even seen you in this uniform?" Phi asked fondly.

"Okay, fine, make fun of me. I don't care."

"We're not making fun of you." Phil, for the first time that night, uttered something addressed to Nikki. It sure was nice to hear his voice. "Okay, maybe we are – a little bit."

Nikki cleared her throat and tried her best to get past the smile, the familiar, knee-weakening smile that she always hated to love, that he gave her just then – it was not easy. "What's so new about me and getting some waitressing done anyway?"

"What's new?" Ben's eyes told her that he was about to give the answer to the easiest question in the world. "Doesn't Joe, like, still do your laundry for you?"

Nikki's jaw dropped as the three of them burst out laughing. "Who told you – oh, that's so fair of you, Ben, bringing it up here, really…"

"Chillax, Nik. If anything, this is an improvement on your part. Maybe next time you'll be able to help Joe with the dishes."

"Or like, feed the dog, and take the trash out."

"Or bring Belles to school and do some serious inventory in the attic."

Nikki closed her eyes and took a deep, slow breath. This was her brother's pals making fun of her, and growing up almost alongside them, Nikki had to accept that this could happen a lot whenever they ran into each other.

"Oh, shut up! I do wash the dishes!" Nikki defended herself. "Sometimes." And more quietly, she added.

"Sometimes." Phi and Ben echoed her, laughing and high-fiving each other.

"Hey, hey, that's enough." Phil finally said, in that authoritative voice that only he could pull off that sexily. Crap. "Nikki helps Joe with the house chores." Okay, did he really have to smile every time he ended a sentence? Nikki could hardly get her tongue to say something. "In another life." This time all three of them were giggling their asses off.

"Mmm." was all she could say at the moment. Yeah, Phil could be an ass, too, she almost forgot that part. "Can't you asses just be supportive?"

"Of course we are supportive of you. No doubt about that." Ben said, and Phi agreed, nodding his head vigorously for emphasis.

"Yes. Now can we all get something to eat? I'm starving." The way Phil said 'starving' made Nikki's neck heat up a little bit. _Jesus. Get ahold of yourself, will you?_

"Why, of course." She motioned on her pencil and paper, struggling to look anywhere but him. Him and his sexy, sexy mouth.


	5. A NotSoStrange Person After All

Taz bit her fingernails as her eyes never left the TV screen. "I think that, as a mother of three, it'd be wise if we locked our doors and kept our children inside at all times." said the woman on Fox news determinedly. "I think it's only right that we do all precautionary measures to keep 'em safe from kidnappers and unwanted pedophiles." Taz grimaced at the thought. Kidnappers? Pedophiles? Why would God allow this kind of people to walk the earth? Why? The reporter asked, "Based on your own experience, what has been the worst case scenario that involved you and your children?" The woman took a deep breath, seemingly swept by a sudden memory of terror and composed herself for the camera. "It happened two years ago. I was on my way to the grocery shop, and I left my kids with their babysitter, when this total stranger went into the house and introduced himself as my children's playmate's father. The nanny knew nothing about it but she let him in nonetheless. Next thing we knew, my child's playmate was dragged out of the house by that man and was never seen again for the next ten days. It was a good thing that the babysitter knew exactly how he looked like."

"So, what is your advice for all those mothers out there who want to keep their children protected?"

"My advice?" the woman paused, looking at the camera or rather at Taz's terrified eyes, and continued, "Never trust anyone."

Taz jumped and felt a wave of fear as she heard something squeak outside, like a gate being dragged open. She quickly turned the TV off, half-panicking, half-wishing it was Gracie. But Gracie used the car, didn't she? Taz had a moment to consider that maybe she was just being paranoid, but what if she wasn't? What if? What if… there was a stranger outside their house right now ready to barge in and kidnap the kids? Like what that woman on TV had just said a couple of while ago?

Oh, God, the kids!

Wait, where _were_ the kids? She had no time to think about it. She grabbed the nearest knife she could find and start running outside as she knew the kids were playing at the backyard. With a surge of rush, she thought of all the possible escape strategies that they could use, although her mind was not working anymore because, damn if she wasn't scared as hell.

And sure enough as she reached the back, there were the kids… and oh, dear God, a man who stood before them. She did what she knew was right at the moment. "Back away from the children!"

The man turned around to face her and looked surprised to see the knife that she was pointing in his direction. "I swear to God, if you don't leave right now, I will kill you."

"Whoa, whoa, relax!" The man, who looked rather scared himself, tried to gather the kids behind him, that, weird enough, looked like he was trying to protect them.

"Step away from the children! Don't come any closer or you will die!" Taz was screaming the words as much as she meant them.

"Aunt Taz? What's wrong?" Abby, somewhere from behind the man, asked.

"Don't worry, sweetheart, the scary old man won't hurt you."

"Whoa, whoa, wait a second. You know her, Abby?" The man asked, looking surprised even more.

"Yes, she's Mommy's friend and she lives with us now."

The man looked like he was trying to remember something and suddenly his face faded into calmness… like he was relieved or something? God! What kind of sick, twisted game was this kidnapper playing? And how the hell did he know Abby's name?

"Hey, miss, I don't what you think of me -" the stranger began putting his hands spread out on his sides, as though surrendering.

"I said, step away from the children!" Taz couldn't take any chances. This criminal might snatch the kids in a matter of seconds.

"I think it'd really help if you put your weapon down and maybe by then we can properly –"

Taz breathed in a hurried rhythm, ready to plunge the knife into the kidnapper's chest if he came any closer. "Get away from me…"

"Look, I'm not gonna hurt you, you see that girl? That's my daughter – Isabelle…"

Huh. This was exactly what the woman on TV said. The kidnapper assuming the father of the children's playmates… her hand shook so hard she couldn't see straight anymore… and it was happening to her – that whole "your life flashes before your eyes" thing.

"I swear I'm gonna kill you..." And she _was_ going to kill him.

"Look, lady, relax, okay? What's her name, Abby?"

"Her name is - "

"Don't talk to him, Abby! He can't be trusted!" Taz called out to the child, desperately wanting to save them and get them out of here.

"My name is Joe… and…"

"Oh, is that the same alias you use on your other kidnapping activities?"

"Kidnapping what?" The pitch of his voice got so high he almost sounded like a girl, which would have been funny if Taz and the kids weren't about to get abducted at that moment. Huh.

Okay, Taz bought that look of shock for a second. But she heard what the woman on TV said, "Never trust anyone."

"Look, I think you're totally confused…"

"Don't talk to me, psycho!"

"Me? Psycho? You're the one pointing the knife at my face for no apparent reason, and you have the gall to call me the psycho? If there is any psycho here, it's you…"

How dare he accused her of being the psycho when he was about to commit a crime? _One more step, you son of a bitch and you're gonna get it._ He did take one more step, and the blade of the knife sliced through this arm as painfully as Taz had intended it to. Oh, Jesus. Now he had a moment to yelp in pain before slowly retreating. Good; he was bleeding. And so freaking shocked that he couldn't seem to close his mouth.

Right then Taz could hear the sound of Gracie's car entering the garage, and thanked God. "You want more?" She threatened, feeling much braver now that she already made one hit and now that Gracie was here.

The man wrapped his hand around his bleeding forearm and a little girl came running to his side. "Daddy!" She was crying, for real.

"This is nothing, baby. It's just a tiny scratch. Daddy's fine." His voice was strained and it was clear he was keeping the pain and shock from escaping his lips. Because dang, it wasn't JUST a scratch. Taz felt how deep the blade went into his skin. Apparently, the little girl was no idiot, either. Because she was still crying, sounding scared.

And then it all dawned on her. Oh no, oh no, oh no.

So she was his daughter? So he wasn't a kidnapper? So he really was just a dad? Did she just hurt an innocent, little guy? Sliced his arm with a kitchen knife, no less?

And then Gracie came running and went pale as she saw the fountain of blood escaping the man's wound. "Oh my God. Joe, what happened?"

Oh no.

Oh no.

Oh no.

Taz stood there, unable to speak or move, or even breathe.

Gracie rushed to Joe's side, nursing and examining his arm. "Oh, dear, that doesn't look good. Come inside, I've got some Betadyne and band-aid. Tell me what happened."

"No, Gracie, this is nothing. Don't worry about me." Joe said, still keeping pressure on the wound. "I'll just, ah, take this home and…"

"No! I insist, lemme. Taz, go get some -" oh, yeah, that was the only moment Gracie gave Taz one good glimpse and the look on her face as soon as she saw the knife still buried in Taz's hands was as stunned as only Taz could expect.

"Did you…?" Gracie couldn't even finish. "Taz?"

"I'm… so-rry…" Sorry? Was that all she was? No. She was intensely, deeply, desperately mourning where her temporary insanity had led her, but her whole body was too frozen to utter more.

"You've got some explaining to do, young lady." Gracie told Taz in that serious, uncompromising tone. She knew she was in deep, deep trouble, but for some reason she also felt Gracie was ready to hear an explanation before officially dubbing her "psycho knife attacker girl."

Gracie put one arm around Joe's shoulder, assisting him to the backdoor, with the terrified kids in tow. And Taz could only stand there, gripped with a frustrating sense of guilt, defeat and sympathy. Boy, was she the one to assume.


	6. A Sister Cares But Never Shows It

"What happened to you?"

Joe didn't take his eyes away from the TV as he spoke, "Nothing."

Nothing? Nikki swore the obvious bandage around her brother's arm wasn't just "nothing." She slumped down beside him on the couch and gave him an incredulous scoff. "Yeah, right. Spill it, Joe."

"Oh, what this?" Joe exposed his clearly injured arm and examined it like it was the first time he noticed it was there. "It's nothing. And I'd really appreciate it if no one make it a big deal."

"Your obvious effort of downplaying it makes it one. I am pretty sure that this -" Nikki lifted his arm, gaining an eye roll from him, "this is a huge deal. Now if you can just please spare me the suspense already and tell me what kind trouble you were putting yourself into. Did you get bitten by a bear or something?"

"Ha. I wish." Joe chuckled. "It wasn't a bear at all."

"What, like, a dog?"

He rested his head further down the couch and seemed to contemplate deeply on something. "No, a girl."

"A girl?" Nikki flashed her brother her big, excited eyes, because wow, if that wasn't news. "What did she do to you?"

"Sliced my arm like it was a piece of meat." She could've sworn she heard Joe say it like he was reminiscing about a particularly pleasant memory. But then again, her brother was always weird like that. Oh, yeah, but she was missing the big picture.

"What? What did you do to her?"

"Nothing. I just went to Gracie's house this afternoon to pick up Belles and there she was, charging at me with a knife." He stated in that emotionless, narrative tone, like he couldn't care less. Huh.

"What?"

"Yeah, turned out she thought I was a kidnapper."

"A kidnapper?" Wow, this was even bigger news. "Why would she think that? And why was she in Gracie's house in the first place?"

"She's Gracie's new housemate… and uh, well, I have no idea why she'd think that I was a kidnapper. Probably because she had never met me before, or maybe, she was just being overly careful…"

"Or being a total psycho." She hadn't meant to say it aloud. "Why, didn't you tell her who you were?"

"I did. But she wouldn't believe me."

"So she _was _a psycho."

"I wouldn't say that. Maybe if she had met me before the incident -"

"Oh, come on, please tell me you're not actually defending her. I mean, look at what she did to you. She, what, like cut your arm? I mean, why would Gracie even live with some knife-attacking psycho like that?" Nikki had always been afraid of blood. Ugh. She was half-glad she wasn't there when it happened.

"It's not as bad as it sounds. It's actually a very shallow wound." Joe absentmindedly stroked the affected area. "I am amazed by her courage, though."

Nikki folded her arms and rolled her eyes so hard she was afraid her eyeballs might fall out of their sockets. "Geez. What a loser."

"I'm just saying, Nikki. You should've seen the look on her face when she attacked me. It was like she wanted to save the kids so bad that she was willing to put her own life on the line for it. I mean, if I really think about it, she was trying to save Isabelle, too."

"Yeah, trying to save your own daughter from you?" Nikki wondered how her brother's brain worked sometimes.

"But what if it won't be me the next time? What if… God forbid, a real psycho might show up in there and threaten to take the kids away, I have this feeling that she'd still be there, prepared to protect the kids as possibly as she could."

Nikki shook her head in disbelief. "You know what? It's the medications getting to your head. Try and get some rest, Joe. I'll see you in the morning." She said, getting sluggishly up from the sofa. "Today was exhausting."

"Oh, yeah, your first weekday shift." Joe's mood suddenly changed, an obvious signal their previous conversation was over. "How did it go?"

"Don't make it sound like it's too different from the weekend ones. I mean, what's with the fuss, y'all?" She was going up the stairs already when she remembered that sparkling smile that sent miniature fireworks off the ground and around her. And she saw a lot of it today. Mmm.

"Why, who else was making a fuss about it?" Joe always knew when something was up.

"Uh, no one." But she couldn't possibly hide this from him or he'd make a gi-normous deal off of it f he found about it later. She'd better play the cards clean. "Uh, the guys dropped by the café this afternoon. And well, like you, they were fussing about it."

"The guys… specifically…" okay, why did she have the feeling she had to worry? Joe was too all-knowing.

"Ben, Phi and… Phil." She made the last name sound as casual as her sensibilities would allow her.

"Phil, eh?"

"What?" She snapped.

"What?" He shrugged.

Okay, the snapping and the innocent shrugging, however feigned. He and Joe had been on it for years. She was too tired to defend herself tonight, though; she just wanted to go up to her room, fall flat on her bed and well, think about him… and his deadly smile. "Goodnight, Joe."

"'Night!" Why did he sound so cocky like he was proud of himself? He was the one with the sliced arm here.

Stubborn ass.


	7. How Do You Get Out Of This One?

"So, what, you just thought that 'hey, this guy might be a kidnapper, maybe I should cut his arm with a kitchen knife?'"

_Yes,_ Taz wanted to say. But wouldn't that sound a little… crazy if said out loud? Gracie glared at her with that hands-on-hips-don't-you-mess-with-me stance. And Taz literally felt like the floor was going to swallow her up through the embarrassment of this whole situation. Crazy or not, though, she had to say something. "Um… it will sound a little saner if taken in its real context."

"Which is?" Grace asked as if that was the answer if she had been waiting for all along.

Taz took a deep breath, sinking lower in her seat. "I was watching the news and…" Wasn't it bad enough that she had hurt a poor innocent guy? Why did she have to explain herself? See, right now, she loathed herself so much that she didn't even bother talking herself out of it. This was one of those rare I've-sinned-so-punish-me moments.

"So… you just assumed that whatever happened to that old lady might also happen to you?" Gracie sounded like she was still having a difficult time digesting this. "the exact same thing?"

"Yes… like I said, I got a little paranoid." was only Taz could reason at the moment. A little?

"Which wouldn't have been the case if you listened to me." Gracie wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand and stared at the ceiling of awhile.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I mean, if only you took the time and effort to get to know who our neighbors were, maybe you'd have an idea who Joe is and not attack him with that damn knife."

Oh, right. She did advise Taz that, didn't she? Oh, boy. Guess all of this was her fault at any angle you look at it.

"And plus, didn't I tell you that Joe was gonna stop by this afternoon to pick her daughter up before I left?" There was no sign Gracie was calming down any time soon.

Taz tried to remember when such 'telling' took place and sighed in sorry failure as something dawned on her. "Were you by the door when you said it?" She asked.

Gracie looked surprised at the randomness of the question for a second but soon had that faraway look on her face like she was trying to recall herself. "I don't know, yeah."

There you go. "Oh, well, Grace, I didn't catch that 'coz of the vacuum cleaner."

Gracie shook her head exasperatedly and finally took a seat next to Taz, looking desperate for some physical support. "But Joe is such an innocent guy. Probably one of the nicest guys in Del Paso, or even in this era, for goodness's sake. I just feel bad at the thought of him hurt just because you mistook him for a criminal. Joe? A criminal? There isn't anything weirder than that. And what you did to him- he just doesn't deserve it."

Taz knew that, and hearing it come out from Gracie's own lips felt like a life-altering slap on her face. "I know. I'm sorry. And you're right. I should have listened to you."

There were a few seconds of silence but Taz broke it immediately, "The truth was Gracie I was so afraid for the kids that it didn't matter to me if I was mistaking anyone for anything. I guess that's what drove me not to think rationally, or to think at all."

For the first time that night, Gracie's eyes became relaxed and… if Taz had interpreted it right, understanding.

"Well, thank you for that, Taz." She said, softly. "You really must care about the kids."

"Of course I do."

Gracie smiled into space, seemingly having a private moment with herself. Looks like someone was about to be forgiven.

"So, are we good, Grace?" Taz asked as carefully and as considerately as she could.

Gracie rolled her eyes and brightened her smile more. "Of course, we never were 'not good'".

Taz was about to break into a smile herself when Gracie stopped her with a hand. "But you gotta make it up to Joe, though. Let him know that you're not the crazy masochistic newcomer that you have succeeded in making yourself out to be."

Huh. She could handle that. It was never hard for her to swallow her pride. Well, in this case, she didn't even feel like she had anything to swallow in the first place, if truth be told. "Consider it done. I will go to Joe's place first thing tomorrow and bring him some… you know, token of apology."

Gracie approved of it proudly. "Good girl."

Taz was allowed to give a full, genuine smile this time. Hah. That was easy.


	8. Phil Is So Ugh!

Nikki's eyes opened so wide and big she wondered for a second if they'd fall right off to the floor. Phil was over there their place for breakfast and no one forewarned her about it. Okay, maybe this was just her being all panicky and jumpy every time he showed up unexpectedly, or maybe this was just a doomed breakfast, plain and simple. Somehow it took a considerate amount of self-preparation before Nikki could face him without having to be afraid of losing control of the situation. Yes, he held that much power over her. That damn guy. What was it in him anyway that made him so suave and self-confident and so frigging attractive in Nikki's eyes? For years, Nikki had been in denial of her feelings for him, but she was done pretending now. She wanted him. No, she desired him.

And the bad thing was that he was her brother's best pal. And wasn't he supposed to be like a big-brother type of figure?

"Morning." Phil acknowledged her as she looked for her way around the island.

Having him over for any meal was supposed to be a normal thing by now, seeing as he and Joe were almost like Siamese twins, but no, Nikki couldn't stop feeling the want to curl up and die every time he came and caught her off guard. She flashed him a quick, evasive smile and reached out for the pot of coffee on the table.

"So as I was saying…" Joe butted in, having that meaningful thickness in his voice that Nikki hated with conviction. "It was so funny, dude. Because I almost felt like I was in some cheap soap opera when she pointed the knife at me."

Phil laughed and forked a chuck of ham into his mouth. Nikki kept her eyes on her plate.

"And there was nothing I could do. She kept threatening that she'd kill me."

"She's a mean lady." Isabella commented out of nowhere, which made Phil turn his head in her direction. Her face was covered in ketchup and her hands treated the food like they were toys.

"Oh, no, she's not, Belles." Joe corrected, wiping away the red stain from her cheek. "What she did was very honorable trying to save you kids."

"Yeah, she just saved you from the wrong guy." Phil supplied.

"That's true, but it doesn't make her a bad person, okay?" Joe said, seemingly determined to scrape off whatever blame that may be pointed at the woman who caused her brother to wear that serious-looking bandage on his arm. If Nikki didn't know any better, she'd say he was hurt big time. He was just making it seem like otherwise because well, guys do that. Preserves the machoness and all that.

"So what happened next?" Phil asked as he chewed adorably. _Wait, adorably? Nikki , you are pathetic! _

"Well, right after the 'slashing' incident, to which I'm not gonna go into details, Gracie got home at last. And she went nuts when she saw all the blood."

"Who wouldn't, dude?" Phil interrupted.

"Me hate blood." Isabella shook her head. "Don't want Daddy in blood."

Joe brushed her hair and looked at her compassionately. "I know, I'm sorry you had to see that."

"So Belles saw what happened?" Nikki stopped chewing her bacon and huffed in disbelief.

"Well, she was there, so yeah." Joe shrugged.

"You actually let her just stand there and watch you as get slashed by that man-eater?" She asked, losing her appetite altogether.

"There was nothing I could have done, Nik. It all happened so fast. I never expected she'd actually do it." Joe explained. "And don't call her a man-eater, please."

"Yeah, 'cuz she's such a hero for cutting your arm open and doing it in front of your daughter." Nikki derided sarcastically.

"Nik…" He started.

"Oh, Joe, don't even hide it. I know that this is more serious than you're letting on."

Joe rolled his eyes, shaking his head exasperatedly. "Okay, maybe, she might have hit some deep nerve. But whatever the case, I still don't see her as a bad person, or a man-eater like you said. She just saw that moment as an emergency and couldn't care less anymore if she had minor audiences around."

Now, this was Nikki's turn to roll her eyes. She was willing to sell her soul to the devil if she could just make Joe see her point. That that woman was obviously mentally retarded!

"I gotta agree with Nikki, Joe." Phil said, and Nikki almost couldn't swallow a lump of mashed potatoes down her throat. "Don't you think it makes her a little bit crazy for even assuming that you're some psychotic kidnapper and refusing to give you the benefit of the doubt? I mean, think about it; there must be something wrong with her head, maybe not directly because she harassed with you the knife, but because she immediately jumped into the conclusion that you might be a dangerous threat. That's some serious messed-up pessimism right there, if you ask me."

Joe grew thoughtful for a moment; oh, so now he was considering Phil's take on this and never bothered ever considering hers? Mmph. Well, if she thought twice about it, she and Phil were agreeing to same thing, weren't they?

"Simply put," Nikki said, "she's fatally insane."

"Big time." Phil concurred, making suggestive gestures with his hand. "So you should start thinking about changing your verdict about this."

"Yeah, and stop being such a frigging martyr. Being sacrificial victims has phased out in the '50's."

"Uh-huh, and you should start seeing the fact as it is." Phil and Nikki shared one quick, almost insignificant eye-contact that made Nikki's face heat up.

Joe shook his head as though shaking imaginary insects off. "You know, just because you two are both into human analysis and stuff, doesn't mean you can gang up on me in the comfort of my own home, and in front of my 5-year-old daughter." Joe pouted indignantly and glanced at Isabelle whose face looked a ball of red by now. "…who is currently a human manifestation of tomato sauce. Come on, Belles, let's get you cleaned up." Isabella got off the Tazmania-themed chair her dad had especially ordered and customized for her.

"So does that mean you agree with us now, martyr guy?" Nikki asked, her heart doing a somersault when Phil winked at her.

"I don't wanna talk about it anymore." Joe stroked the back of his neck, resigned. "It's like no matter what I say nobody listens anymore." He gathered all used dishes, including Isabelle's, which in Nikki's judgment, looked more like a litter box if she really looked at it that closely and slid out of the stool and went for the sink, Isabelle in tow.

"Aww, sulking, are we?" Phil teased. "Look, dude, thanks for the delightful breakfast but I have to motor. Gotta be late for work."

Nikki was about to scream _No!_ on top of her lungs but caught her tongue immediately. Phil worked as an architect in that famous architectural firm downtown and was a part-time Psychology student at the college Nikki was attending as well. So, yeah, running into Phil there was likely. Not that Nikki was hoping every moment of her life that they'd bump into each other. Not at all.

"Yeah, sure." Joe said over his shoulder as he washed off all the food rubbish off Isabelle's tiny hands. "So I guess I'll see you guys this afternoon at Playbacks."

Joe's words alarmed Nikki. "Wait, what are you gonna be doing at Playbacks?"

Joe's eyebrows curled together. "Uh, to rehearse, duh?" He said, doing a perfect impersonation of a dumb 16-year-old blond cheerleader's accent.

Nikki shook her said. "Of course I know that, dimwit. But what I meant was… 'are you insane?'"

"What?" Joe looked at her questioningly. "I'll be out of work by 5:30 today, anyway. My night shift isn't till Monday. So what's wrong with catching up with work with the guys?"

Her was brother was insane; there was no question about it. "Okay I'm gonna say this to you like I'm explaining to a 4-year-old: what about your arm injury?"

The mention of it didn't faze him a bit. "I don't walk with my hands, Nik."

Phil, who had already stood up from his chair and shrugged his coat on, was about to say something when Joe stopped him. "I'm okay, dude. This is nothing, all right?"

"Are you sure?"

Joe sighed for the hundredth time. "You won't even notice it's here."

Phil shrugged. "Aight, if you say so."

"No, not 'if you say so'!" Nikki objected, getting to her feet as well. "This is not subject to negotiation, Joe. You are not gonna be dancing in that arm."

"Says who?" Joe placed his hands over his hips, his voice authorative. "Says you? Says you who once sneaked out of her room in crutches because all her friends were partying while she was stuck at home, grounded for driving the family car without a license and crashing it into Ms. Ling's front lawn?"

Oh, busted. Nikki took a deep breath and sank back down in her chair, defeated and worse, humiliated.

"Nope, didn't think so." Joe added.

Phil laughed. "Really, Nikki? That happened?"

"Long story." Joe said absentmindedly. "So, six, right? I'll be there, dude."

"Aight, see you this afternoon." Phil said in finality. "Bye, Nik, Bells."

"Bye." Nikki muttered silently under her breath. "Bye, Uncle Phil!" Isabelle, who was still playing with the faucet water, waved as Phil got out of the back door.

"You okay?" Joe asked moments later, noticing the blatant pout in Nikki's lips.

"Yeah." She avoided looking into his eyes.

"You know, he won't leave us for good, you know. No need to be morose about it."

"What?"

"You know, Phil. I know it bothers you that he left - "

Ahh, suddenly she knew where this was going. "Shut up. You are such an ass, Joe."

"Language!" Joe scolded, carefully glancing at Isabelle to check if she was paying any attention or heard anything.

"You can't hide it from me, Nikki." She was surprised to hear the seriousness in her brother's voice, that distinct tone that said he wasn't just making fun of her anymore, that said he meant business.

"Hide what?"

"It's okay. You're young, he's young, plus I've known him for too long to know that he'd make a good boyfriend. I won't be big brother-ly about this and make it hard for the both of you…"

Literally Nikki's jaws dropped to the floor. What the?

She wanted to say something; she wanted to protest and rid his head off whatever suspicion and ideas he had pertaining to this subject, but the doorbell rang and Nikki wanted to scream.

"Ah, saved by the bell, are we?"

Joe stormed out of the kitchen to get the door and Nikki felt her throat closing up on her. She wanted to kill him, and cut both of his heads off.


	9. Girl Meets Boy Properly

Taz didn't know what to expect from this Joe person as the first ring went off. Was "Joe" going to be forgiving and agree to put this all behind them? Or was he going to play the god card and punish her endlessly for the assault she prayed she had never committed? The latter seemed more likely.

She decided to push the doorbell button for the second time and almost jumped when she heard the doorknob click at the same exact time. A young man appeared at the doorstep, with a noticeable bandage around his left arm. Taz swallowed down the lump in her throat and tightened her grip around the basket-handle she was carrying.

"Good morning, may I help you?" The person, aka the guy with a really adorable smile, or Joe, as she came to learn, said pleasantly. He might not have recognized her yet.

"Good morning. Err," Taz cleared her throat for what felt like the 5th time since she got there, "You must be Joe."

"I sure am." He smiled good-mannered-ly. "…and you are?"

_Freddy Kruger_, she almost said. "I'm Taz and… I don't know if you remember me, but…"

"No, I remember you." His smile got wider. "Are those for me?" He said, eyeing the basket-full of fresh-baked cookies she was holding.

Taz had enough time to let that moment sink before she could answer. "Uh, yeah, of course. I baked them myself." She had a feeling this guy didn't remember her. Not at all.

Joe reached out for it with an amusing amount of enthusiasm and sniffed it appreciatively. "Wow, lemme guess – lemon grass?"

Wow, if Taz wasn't so weirded out, she'd be willing to talk food with him. But she was weirded out. This was the guy she attacked, with a Kinder knife, no less. "Yeah, how did you know?"

"I'm a chef at La Provence". Joe said like she was supposed to know what he was talking about. "Oh, I almost forgot, you're new here. Welcome to the neighborhood, by the way. And thanks for this. I've been craving for homemade cookies that are not from my own oven."

"No… problem." Taz blinked over and over and over and somehow she couldn't get out of this freak-show dream.

"So, Taz, right?"

She nodded.

"Wow. I'm a big fan of you."

"Huh?"

He chuckled. "I mean, I'm a big fan of Tazmanian Devil. Childhood hero."

"Oh." Taz felt like cracking up – this was the first time someone saw her name in a positive light.

"So you wanna come in? Meet the rest of the gang?"

Taz felt relaxed, but not quite. "Are you… are you sure you remember me?"

"Yeah, you're the one who gave me this." He said, gesturing to the dressing in his arm.

He did remember her. "I'm here to apologize. I know what I did was totally uncalled for and stupid and I wasn't thinking at all. I just can't believe that - "

Joe shook his head before she could finish. "Uh-uh. There's no need to apologize."

"Are you sure?" This guy was either turning out to be a Saint, or an idiot.

"Yeah. A total stranger breaks into your house, someone you've never met before and talks to the kids, what do you do? You take a knife and hurt him before he can hurt you or the kids, and if he turns out to be an innocent, charming guy…" Joe faked a funny cough, turning Taz's apprehension into something else, "…bring him cookies the next day. That's the best course of action."

Taz didn't know why but she burst out laughing just then. Okay, saint is likelier; a _funny_ saint, but still. "Wow, you're too nice."

"So I've heard." He said, with a too-confident tone that let Taz know that humor was a huge part of who he was as a social being.

Taz hadn't seen this one coming. She remembered Gracie saying that Joe was nice, but not this nice, and this funny. And this cute.

"So you forgive me?"

"I can't resist lemon grass cookies, so yeah." Joe joked and opened the door wider. "Come on, neighbor. Lemme introduce you to everyone."

Everyone, apparently, consisted of two people – one and a half actually if Taz was counting physically: a young girl, probably about her age, with a noticeable brooding aura about her, and a tiny toddler – Joe's daughter Isabelle, she was told. Taz beamed courteously at them, wondering if they knew what she did and why she was here. The girl almost smiled back, but Isabelle looked the least bit happy to see her. The little one must have recognized her immediately.

"What is she doing here, Daddy?" Her small, frightened voice asked.

"Why, the nice young lady brought us gifts." Joe said, setting the basket down the table, and then wrapped his arms around her little body and lifted her up from the floor. "Her name is Taz."

Two round eyes glared at her like daggers; Taz could practically feel their sharp edges piercing her own eyes. "Hello, Isabelle."

"And what do you say?" Joe asked her.

"Hello." was all she said, and boy, could a five-year-old be so intimidating? "Where's your knife?"

Taz's tongue was caught by the cat then as she couldn't respond to it at all. Who filled up the silence that she provided, though, was the brown-haired girl. "Oh, so you're the infamous knife-attacker?"

"Oh, I almost didn't notice you." Joe said casually, gaining a sharp eye roll and an armfold from the girl. It seemed immediately to Taz that Joe was being intentionally mean to her.

"Will you do me a favor and cut his right arm next time?" The girl told Taz sharply. Taz wouldn't be surprised if Joe introduced her as his sister.

"That's Nikki, by the way, my own personal fan."

"Dream on, dweeb." The girl – Nikki, declared. "Unfortunately, I'm his sister. Freak of nature." She addressed to Taz.

Huh. _I knew that_, Taz thought. "Hey, Nikki."

"So, Taz, huh?" Nikki asked her in a cool, non-scrutinizing tone that Taz was thankful for right away.

"Yep." She waited for the Tazmanian Devil joke to pop out anytime soon.

"Huh. Well, that explains why Joe is so fond of you." Taz could see the scheming look on Nikki's eyes, and the shade of surprise on Joe's face. "You see, Taz, my brother here never really got it into his pea of a brain that you physically hurt him. Really, we tried convincing him otherwise, but he just couldn't comprehend that simple little concept - that hurting another human being for no apparent reason is… well, bad."

"But she did have a reason!" Joe exclaimed defensively.

"A mistaken reason." Nikki corrected him. It looked like Joe was about to get into a rant when Nikki interrupted him, overshadowing his voice. "See? Just look at him futilely explain himself."

"He's into you. Because he's a freak and he finds criminal-minded chicks hot. Plus he has this weird fetish for that ugly Tazmanian Devil character, and by some curious coincidence, you have its name."

"What on earth are you doing, Nikki?" Joe asked helplessly.

"Giving you a doze of your medicine, dude."

"Do not listen to her, Taz. She is genetically engineered to make my life miserable." Joe whined, playing all the part of a six-year-old. There was that undeniable air that said the playful feud between these two was a regular, almost invisible thing; something that they had been used to from going at it for years and years.

"What are we, twelve?" Nikki said.

"I'm twelve; you're more like four."

Nikki stuck her tongue out at him and crossed her arms. "You know what? It was a pleasure meeting you, Taz; finally I've met someone who wants to kill my brother as much as I do."

"HA-HA-HA." Joe laughed emotionlessly. "You crack me up, Nikkidoofus."

Taz had a fleeting thought that she'd like them very much. Both of them.

"You know, normally I don't condone crime, and really what you did to him kinda gave me the feeling that you were… you know, a loon. No offense. But - "

"None taken, Nikki." Taz quickly interjected. "Actually, I can understand if you still think I am."

"But…" Nikki said like there was no interruption made, "since my brother here has excellently proved how much of an ass he really is, I think I'd be more than happy to plan a massacre against him with you."

"You know, Nikki, one more time that you're gonna say a dirty word… I swear I'm gonna…" Joe began to warn.

"What, exactly?" Nikki asked confidently, one eyebrow raised.

Joe turned to Taz and said, "Nikki has this huge highschool crush on my bestfriend."

Taz saw how all the blood disappeared from Nikki's face, leaving her looking like an ashen Vitamin D-deficient patient, and completely, totally flabbergasted. Once recovered, Nikki flashed him a death glare and mouthed "I hate you."

Joe smiled, triumphant, and turned to his daughter, who was still wrapped in his arms. "Oh, will you look at the time? Come on, Belles, let's get you ready for school. And I'll leave the two of you alone." Joe smiled at Taz, his left dimple showing more endearingly than necessary. "It was nice meeting you, Taz. Especially now that you don't have a knife with you."

Taz found herself laughing. "Nice meeting you, too, Joe. I'm sorry again for… you know… what happened."

"I'm willing to forget all about it. Actually I'm kinda thankful for it, you know, making me seem like a heroic survivor from a life-threatening accident." Joe kidded, putting up his arm proudly as though it was trophy that would entitle him to bragging rights. "And thanks for the cookies. You honestly just made my day with those."

"Don't mention it."

"And ooh, let me know what you and my sister will come up with you know… with the whole Operation Joe Assassination."

"Trust me – you won't miss a single detail." Nikki said bitterly.

Joe smiled one last time before turning around and taking him and Isabelle up the stairs.

Nikki let out a deep breath, her shoulders slumped. "Don't believe anything he says."

"What?" Taz finally took her eyes off Joe's retreating back and looked in Nikki's direction.

"You know, about me having a crush on…" she trailed off.

"Oh…" Taz saw the shade of red rushed back to Nikki's cheeks. It wasn't hard to see that Joe wasn't the one who was telling a lie.

"All that come out of his mouth are mostly rubbish."

Taz chuckled. "You guys seem to get along very much." It may come off sarcastic but she meant it. The key to a healthy relationship is argument, right?

Nikki rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right. I'm sorry you had to witness that, by the way. Just a sister and brother thing, you know."

"Don't worry about it."

"You know, you failed my expectation."

"Excuse me?"

Nikki smiled. "I didn't mean anything bad by that. It's just that when Joe told me about what you did, I imagined you as someone really huge and brusque. Well, apparently, I was wrong. You don't look like you're an axe murderer after all."

Taz chortled. "Well, I am glad I proved you wrong."

"So why did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Uh, attack my brother under no ground at all?"

"Oh." Taz did a mental head slap. "It's a long story; you probably wouldn't wanna hear it anyway. Plus, I may come off as crazy."

"Trust me, you already do. I don't think anything can make you seem crazier than you already are." Nikki said casually. Taz was surprised to find herself the least bit insulted by her frankness; she actually appreciated it somehow. "Come on, spill the beans."

"Like I said, it's a long story…"

"My class isn't till 3:30, so I've got the whole morning to listen to you." Nikki said, moving them to the couches that said this was gonna be a looong talk. "Unless you have something else better to do."

"Oh, not at all." Taz said, already plopping down on the sofa beside Nikki.

"So?"

Taz took and a deep breath and opened her mouth.


	10. What Friends are Really for in Real Life

Joe's eyebrows knotted as six pairs of questioning eyes looked his way. "What?"

"A girl, you mean, like a little bitty person who wears scrunchies and reads romance novels, gave you this?" Rynan, the manly man that he was, asked, studying the white bandages on Joe's arm.

"Well, technically, in my defense, she wasn't wearing a scrunchy that day, and I have no idea if she reads romance novels." Joe shrugged, feeling like a human specimen as six adult people crowded around him. "Look, guys, this is nothing, all right? You guys remind me of my mom. Phi, seriously stop it."

Phi, almost startled, took his hands off Joe's arm. "Can we see?"

"No." Joe seized his own arm protectively. The rehearsal hadn't even started yet and Joe had had enough of his friends' fussiness.

"It looks serious, man." Kevin, the only chocolate-skinned man in the room, said. "Did you see a doctor?"

Joe scoffed. "I didn't have to. All I had to do wash the blood away and wrap these white things around it. And of course, maintain Betadyne application."

"I can't believe it, dude. You got nailed by a woman, if only for the weirdest of reasons." Ben, who was already sneaking through Joe's bag, said.

"I know, right? Wonder what made her think you're a kidnapper?" Chris wondered loudly. "Is it the hair?"

"It's definitely the hair." Rynan agreed, fingering Joe's fuzz.

"Stop it. There's nothing wrong with my hair." Joe said defensively, pushing Rynan's hand away.

"So are you gonna be able to dance with it?"

"Of course. Do you see me strutting with my arm? No."

"Ooh, cookies!" Ben said somewhere from behind them. "See, I knew Joe would bring us something."

All six people dashed around Ben and feasted on Joe's food. Great. This was the problem of having six full-grown men who ate like pigs as friends. "Hey, leave something for me!" Joe whined, left with an empty plastic container. "Thank you."

"You werr-um." Phi said with his mouth full, the shameless bastard.

"This is good stuff, dude." Phil was eating his share like there was no tomorrow, and the others were more than happy to agree with him.

"Well, I'll never know, will I?"

"What are you sulking about, Mr. Ratatouille?" Ben asked, stuffing his mouth with cookies, Joe's lemon grass cookies. Argh. "You can bake these babies any time you want, and now, we, on the other hand, can't."

"Does Joe have magic cooking fingers or what?" Chris crooned.

"I didn't bake those."

"No?"

"The knife-attacker went by the house to apologize today, and brought those with her as peace-offering." Joe explained, "…and you ungrateful jerks finished all of them. I have been salivating for these, you know, and thanks to you, they're all gone."

Ben licked the last piece and handed it out to Joe. "You want this?"

Joe shook his head in disbelief and gave Ben the finger.

"Ooh, that's harsh, Larot."

"So, she came to see you today and brought these yummy cookies, huh? What else did she bring with her, a chain saw?" Phil asked, high-fiving with Rynan.

"HA-HA-HA. Funny but not. She didn't, although if she did, I'd gladly feed it to you."

Phil simply shrugged and left to set up the stereo.

"And just for the record," Joe began, "Just because she did this to me, it doesn't mean that she's a weirdo, or an evil person like most of you may think. I've gotten the chance to talk to her today, and I'm glad to say she's perfectly nice." And she really was, Joe thought.

"Aww… That is nice to hear, Joe." Chris said overdramatically. "Maybe you can invite us to one of your knife-fights so we can clap and cheer when she takes you down."

"Why is everyone mean to me today?" Joe sulked.

"Oh, I'm not." Ben said, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and making smooching sounds. "You know, what happened to you is an experience you will never forget."

Being mistaken for a kidnapper of your own daughter and having a woman assault you with a knife? Hell yeah that's an experience to remember.

"Speaking of experience…" Rynan broke the ice, brushing the cookie crumbs off his sweat shirt.

"What?" They asked in unison.

"I think someone has something to tell us." Phil had that serious look on his face, seemingly informed of the news, too, whatever it was. "Kev, why don't you do the honor?"

All of them turned in Kevin's direction, who blushed at the sudden attention. He cleared his throat and said, "Cher and I are expecting."

Then like a time bomb, the "wow's", "happy for you's" and "that's great's" exploded into the air. Each of them took turns in hugging Kevin, because wow, if this wasn't an emotional moment in their lives. In five years of marriage, Kevin and his wife Cher had tried doing all that they could to conceive a baby, but nothing worked… until now. Joe felt a pleasant flutter in his stomach as he wrapped his arms around Kevin.

"Couldn't be happier for you, man." Joe said, remembering the feeling when he found out he was gonna be a father for the first time. He was only twenty-one then, but the memory was still so fresh that it felt like it happened just a day ago.

"Well, that makes three of us!" Phil crowed celebratorily, who like Joe, was a father himself. Phil put one arm around Joe, and the other on Kevin. "Welcome to the club, Kev."

"Welcome to the club." Joe repeated. "But uh, please don't set Phil as an example of an ideal father."

"Shut up, Joe!" Phil slapped the back of Joe's head. "I have two babies, so that makes me twice of a father as you are. That being said, I think you're gonna be the coolest dad, Kev."

Everyone shared a hearty laugh at the sight of an almost teary Kevin.

"Well, enough about that, we can do our celebrating later." Kevin said. "Right now, I just wanna hustle."

The guys finally settled down and arranged themselves to their right positions. They had enough time to make the necessary adjustments before the music blasted through the gigantic sound boxes. Then seven men moved and danced to the music like cold water to a hot day.


	11. The New Job

Didn't Nikki always hate carot-flavored shakes just because it's tasteless and orange and just plain icky? But here she was, anyway, sipping on it absentmindedly on a Thursday afternoon at a cafe with Taz, just because it was all she could afford at the moment. She was trying to save every penny that ever came her way for that damn Canon camera, and if drinking this "veganly" incorrect drink would be some help, even in the littlest bit, yeah, why not, right?

"So when does school start for you anyway?" Nikki asked, envying the tempting chocolate mocha shake that Taz wasn't even touching.

"It ain't till August, actually." Taz said as her eyes skimmed through the gadgets magazine that Nikki enthusiastically showed her. "And I'm really looking forward to it."

"You gotta be kidding me." She said with a little bit of shake of the head, drawing back a little in her chair that sat opposite to Taz's. "I'd give up my soul if I could just escape school. I always feel like I'm surrounded by rich, spoiled kids who look down upon me just because I'm racially different."

Being Filipino-Americans in the US wasn't always easy. You always had to deal with occasional bullies and discrimination. Good thing Joe found Del Paso, a small Filipino community that lay comfortably in the middle of Americanized areas in Sacramento.

"Really? Does that mean you have no friends at all?"

"I do have friends." Nikki said, her answer only half-true. "But they're only good for partying – not the ones you'd want to talk serious business with."

It was true. Nikki could trust Taz more, who she had only met a week ago than those spoiled teens in school whom she been going to the same college with for the past, uh, three years? It wasn't like she was a complete introvert, though; she did know cliques that were more than willing to let her in, but she just didn't have anyone whom she could get down-and-serious with.

"I've never really had a best friend, you know. I had one in grade school, but it was a long time ago and her family moved to Kansas."

"Wow, that's a bummer. My best friend's my mom. I know – lame, but true. I could tell her anything. But then she got remarried and went to Europe."

Nikki suddenly thought about her own mom, but pushed it away immediately. "So you're really pumped up for college?"

She and Taz, they both discovered, shared the same nationality, celebrity crush (Justin Timberlake) and well – wouldn't you know it – school. Ashford was supposedly a school for rich nerds, but it was the only decent learning facility in Midwestern Sac that had a decent campus.

"I can't believe you didn't sense the sarcasm back there." Taz rolled her eyes.

"Huh?"

"I hate school." Taz muttered under breath. "But I won't do anything major to jeopardize my life, either, like getting myself into trouble and getting expelled. I have no idea why my brother bothered to subject me into that kind of ordeal."

"Ha. Same here."

Taz took her eyes off at the gadget #31 and looked at Nikki for the first time. "Your brother's putting you through school, too?"

"Yep. It's embarrassing." Nikki took a third sip of her God-forsaken drink. "I wish there was something I could do to put it in his mind that I'm not his responsibility anymore."

Nikki and Joe had been on the same I'm-old-enough-to-be-by-on-my-own-no-you're-not argument for too long that Nikki gave up fighting and raised the white flag.

"On the one hand, housing and food are free, and I've got nothing at all to worry about financially, but... I don't know, sometimes I yearn for that kind of independence you know, where you can say, 'hey let's quit school and go to Africa to check out some big-ass saber-tooth cats'. And trust me, Joe's not exactly the kind of brother who'd let me do stuff like that."

"I'm sure he's not." Taz said, in a tone that made Nikki's head snap up.

"Huh?"

"Nothing. I just have a feeling that Joe's the caring, loving type." Nikki didn't know whether to agree or disagree to that – verbally, at least.

"Yeah, he's okay. He's a brother, is what he is. And brothers have double personalities. First minute they're nice to you and then they become monsters the next. They're confusing like that."

"Mmm." Nikki caught a glimpse of the calm, musing far-away look on Taz's eyes. "Sabre-tooth cats are extinct, by the way." Taz began looking at the pages of the magazine again.

"Oh, they are?" Nikki asked, worried. She really admired those half-tiger, half-cat creatures. "That sucks."

"Oh, but this doesn't." Taz gazed in awe at the Canon's SLR latest model flaunting so temptingly before them.

Nikki sipped again. "I told you so." She said in a tone that said she was expecting no other reaction. "That's my baby right there. And will you look at the price?" Would-be baby, to say the least.

Taz's eyes scanned hastily around the page and flew out of their sockets as they landed somewhere "pricey." "$2000?" She exclaimed. Again, Nikki expected correctly. "I don't even think my life costs as much as $2000! Damn."

"Now you understand why I've been busting my butt off at Petey's."

"How far along are you?"

"I'm not even halfway there."

"Wow." Taz's jaw couldn't seem to go back to its normal position. "Whew. I gotta go to the lady's room."

Taz slid quickly out of the chair and hurried towards the back of the hallway leading to a sign that read "Turn left. Yeah, that's where you pee, idiot."

Nikki had a moment to reflect on what had been happening for the past eight days of her life. She met this stranger, this complete stranger who, from what she heard, had this alarming tendency to paranoia (if her brother's firsthand experience was any indication), and somehow she found herself in the company of this person ever since. It's days like this when one can say "we just clicked, plain and simple". Maybe it was because they were both Filipinas? Maybe. Or maybe they just had a lot in common, simply stated. After that morning where they had their first conversation in Joe's living room (and where Taz told her the real story behind the big mystery of mistaking Joe for a criminal), she and Taz had been both, what do you call this, inseparable? But basing on all things that they had shared with each other so far, it seemed like they were going through the same crisis in their lives, so of course Nikki needed that kind of company. She took another forced sip from her spiral straw and slid the magazine across the table to her side for a better, closer look. Two thousand bucks wasn't hard to gain if you were Superwoman who could take all the evening shifts at Petey's from 5 to 9pm, the time where patrons of all ages and sizes flooded that place. But as a student, Nikki wanted a life, too, so all she could commit her time to was on Saturdays and Sundays, which, sadly enough didn't pay all that well. "I guess I have to bust my butt harder."

"Nikki! I gotta tell you something." Taz came running to her, her voice coming out in hisses, flushed as an apple. "There's a guy back there who's been checking you out and he is sooo cute." All hand gestures included.

"Why are you whispering?" Nikki found herself doing it, too.

"Because I think he's coming over - "

"Hey, Nichole."

Taz stopped talking as soon as a familiar voice broke out into the air. Nikki gulped whatever that was stuck down her throat, and looked up to meet Phil's mirthful eyes. Damn. Did Phil aka "big, big trouble" really have to be here at _Mary's Refreshment_ at the same exact hour as them? Talk about rotten timing. Nikki smiled at him as soon as her impulse told her to and mentally slapped herself after remembering how that wretched, nervous smile could scare away little kittens and baby mice.

"Hey, Phil."

Taz's eyes went from a blushing Nikki to a smiling Phil and blinked for a number of times that Nikki couldn't even count. "You know each other?"

"Uh, yeah." Nikki said. "He's Phil, Joe's friend. Phil, this is Taz, the new neighbor."

"Nice meeting you." Nikki watched the exchange of handshakes and stared awkwardly at the table. Boy, Phil was a human being, not a Greek god. She had to remind herself that over and over again.

"So what are you girls up to?"

"Nothing much." Taz said, with more enthusiasm than needed. "Just enjoying the afternoon with a glass of Chocolate smoothie."

Speak for yourself, Nikki thought, flashing her drink a look of disgust. "What about you?"

"Just me and the guys getting something to drink." Phil said as he gestured behind him. Nikki saw PC and Kilo, Phil's other group of friends, PC being his younger brother and waved at them as they talked and gestured animatedly to the girl at the counter. "That's my brother, PC, in the cornrows, and the big guy's Kilo, my brother from another mother."

Taz smiled and acknowledged them with a friendly nod.

"So, do you mind if I keep you company for a while? It may take years before those two goons could decide what to get." He said, laughing and shaking his head at the same time.

"Why, of course." Taz beamed.

Nikki was caught off guard when Phil moved to slide in next to her, their shoulders faintly brushing together. She scooted farther down her seat, feeling the warmth coming from Phil's body.

"So, new neighbor, huh?" Phil began, "You don't happen to be the…"

"Yes, I'm the one weirdo who attacked Joe and accused him of kidnapping his own daughter. Sue me." Taz said, the least impressed of her own doing. "Thank you very much." She added when Phil started laughing.

"You're hanging out with her, Nikki?" Phil turned to look at Nikki so closely their faces were almost touching. Damn this guy; damn him and his smile. "Aren't you scared she might lash at you when you least expect it?"

"No, she's okay." Nikki smiled at Taz, her suspicion building. "So far I'm in good hands."

"Good, 'coz you wouldn't want anything to raze that flawless, mocha skin." Even flirtatious jokes like this made Nikki's face heat up. Phil knew exactly where to push the right button. A suddenly self-conscious Nikki took her eyes down to stare aimlessly at her mini-shorts clad legs.

Taz cleared her throat loudly and drank from her glass. "So I'm a celebrity among Joe's friends now, huh?"

"Yeah, kinda." Phil said. "What happened to Joe doesn't happen to anyone every day. You're not the girl I had in mind, Taz. Joe's right; you're nice."

"He said that?" It wasn't hard for Nikki to sense the little delighted squeak in Taz's voice.

"Yeah, and we didn't believe him for a second. So for that I apologize."

"No harm done." Taz said, "I wouldn't say that about myself, either."

Taz and Phil chatted endlessly about stuff that Nikki neither cared nor knew about. She simply laid back in her chair, nibbling idly at her straw, her mind practically empty except for that permanent compartment that had 'Phil Tayag' written across it.

"… so now I'm practically in a rough edge here." Phil finished whatever story he had started, getting a thoughtful nod from Taz. "I'm helpless – I don't know who I can ask help from."

"Nikki can do it." Taz sounded as though she hadn't thoroughly thought about what she just said.

"Nikki can do what?" Nikki panicked, wishing she had paid more attention; even if she only knew Taz for, what, seventy-eight hours, she had a strong feeling she was the type of friend of who would set up blind dates and other scheming arrangements for her friends behind their backs.

"Phil's looking for a substitute babysitter for his kids, and you're the perfect girl for the job, I know it." The fervor in Taz's voice could only give the impression that she was thinking this was the best idea ever born in the face of time.

"What?" Okay, the semi-horrified, semi-shocked squeal that Nikki made just then was a little uncalled for. But babysitting Phil's children? She might as well throw herself into the fiery pits of hell.

"Well, I'm not exactly looking for a babysitter so much as losing one." Phil sounded hesitant about Nikki doing it, too.

"Why? What happened to her?" Nikki asked. Phil and Taz both turned to her at the same time as if to ask "Haven't you been paying attention at all?"

"I think you have to start all over again, Phil." Taz simply said.

"Rosario flew back to Mexico on such short notice because she wanted to get married." Phil explained after a clueless shrug from Nikki. "We already had a clear arrangement that she was to look after my children while I'll be in Vegas doing a show with your brother."

Right, Nikki hadn't given much thought about their "show" in Vegas when Joe mentioned about it to her in passing. Guess they were really gonna push through with it. Nikki wasn't sure if she was gonna be happy about it.

"But the little brat came to the house this morning and confessed to falling in love with this Ranger dude and decided to go home and tada, get married. Now, how convenient is that?" Phil shook his head and sighed dejectedly. "And until she gets back on track, I'm gonna need someone to take over her place."

"Nikki should do the job." Taz pleaded.

"What? Why me?" Nikki placed her hand over her chest defensively.

Taz clicked her teeth and turned to Phil. "How much do you pay?"

Phil looked confused for a second but got it together immediately, "The normal rate."

"How much is normal, buddy?"

"Are you planning on applying?"

"Answer my question and then we'll answer yours." Taz winked at Nikki, somehow looking proud of herself.

"Uh, 80 an hour."

"80 an hour?" Nikki and Taz chorused deafeningly, that, admittedly, seemed to have almost knocked Phil off of his seat.

"So if I am to work as a full-time …" Taz trailed off, mumbling quiet gibberish and counting something by her fingers.

Ahh, Nikki would have done that, too if she had no sense of humiliation. Because eighty bucks an hour? Her pay rate at Petey's didn't come close to this. Hell no. Nikki was beginning to rethink her initial reaction to this. Ooh, but Taz seemed ready to throw herself into the pool of death herself.

"When's the show?" Nikki asked as Taz was still busy mentally counting whatever it was that needed to be calculated.

"On the 7th of next month. Didn't Joe tell you?"

"No." Nikki said in a tiny voice, feeling a little betrayed.

"Nik!" Taz snapped as though realizing something life-alteringly important. "If you accept this job, only nineteen hours of work is what it takes for you to get the all the money that you need."

"You're saving up?" Phil asked.

"Yeah." Nikki said in a meek voice.

"For this." She could've sworn Taz almost shoved the magazine into Phil's curious face. "It's a perfectly sexy camera, but it's too pricey. Damn."

Nikki observed as nonchalantly as she could as Phil studied the page diligently. He genuinely looked intrigued, if she was to judge his interest. She had a sudden image of Phil stroking and caressing this camera with a sexy song playing in the background and brushed it out of her mind before she lost it completely.

"It's neat."

"We know. So Phil, is Nikki OK for the job?" Taz asked like her whole day depended on his answer.

It was obvious to Nikki that Phil's face was clouded with hesitation and uncertainty, and really she couldn't blame him. What did she know about kids anyway?

"I don't wanna come back home to see my kids in pieces or anything."

"Phil! That is sick!" Nikki slapped him on the shoulder. He simply giggled and shook his head.

"Nikki, let's face it, you don't have any experience with children." Phil said between small laughs. "Am I right or am I right?"

"Aww, come on, it's not all that hard to learn. For all I know, you can work out all the kinks when you are in the job."

"He's right, Taz, I'm not cut out for it."

"But Nikki! Think about it. No more weekend shifts at Petey's and no more mouth from that wily Linda." Taz went on. "Plus, all you need is nineteen hours. That's all it takes."

"Yeah, and what if in those nineteen hours I find my children in the middle of the Arctic Ocean swimming with great white sharks?"

"Is he always this mean to you?" Taz asked passively. "Anyway, don't listen to him. I know you can do it. What's nineteen hours spent with cute, adorable kids compared to weeks and weeks of serving non-organic food to people who are too lazy to prepare their own meal at home?"

Nikki loved the idea that Taz was listening to every single word that she had shared with her so far and that she was taking it to heart.

"Hey, I love eating at Petey's." Phil complained with a feigned insulted voice. "And it's not because I'm too lazy to prepare my meal at home. I just love the ambiance there."

"Whatever." Taz rolled her eyes. "The thing is you gotta make up your mind soon, Phil. Nikki is not available all the time."

"Great, because I won't be asking for her services anyway."

Now that was hurtful, Nikki thought. So he really thought she wasn't the right person for this job? He should've known her better!

"Hand over your children to me and I can promise you they'll be in one piece once you get home from your little trip."

"First of all, it's not 'little', Nikki. We are gonna be having our own show in Vegas, for some reason, a lot of people want to see us there. And second of all, one piece? I have two children. Shouldn't I be worried to see both of them in only ONE piece?"

See? He was a complete, arrogant jerk and Nikki didn't understand why she had strong feelings for this guy.

"Ugh. It's not a wonder anymore why you and Joe are so in love with each other. You both share the same kind of jerkiness." Nikki said, crossing her arms. "Look, I'm not gonna say this so I can get the job, but I'mma say this because I want to defend myself. I am a responsible person. I may not have a lot of experiences with children, but I do have experiences with a child. You know Isabelle? My niece? Your goddaughter? And please, stop stereo-typing me as this incompetent, dumb loser 'cause I'm not. I've been working so hard at Petey's even if it's most god-awful difficult thing to do and I certainly don't deserve the mockery that you have been throwing my way carelessly."

"You tell him, girlfriend."

Nikki closed her mouth shut and saw how the little curve in Phil's lips grew into a sweet, endearing smile. "That's exactly what I wanted to hear."

She tried her best suppressing the blush that was threatening to shade her cheeks but failed. She could smile, too, but no, blushing was enough embarrassment.

"You really wanna do it?"

"Do what?"

"The babysitting, duh!"

It was all Taz could do not to scream "yes" on her behalf.

"Sure…" Nikki said. "Are you sure you want me for the job?"

"Not for the job." Phil answered coyly, "But I definitely want you." It was all good for Phil to innocently flirt with her like this, but really, for Nikki, it was way too much.

"Seriously." Nikki snapped.

"I cannot resist the Nikki charm, so yes, I want you for the job."

"Yay!" Taz clapped like a kid on Christmas. "You're not gonna regret it, Phil."

"You start tomorrow, whenever you're free."

"I thought you guys won't be out till the 7th?"

"Yeah, but I want you tomorrow." Phil sounded like a boss all of a sudden. "Or… whenever you're free."

"Fine, your highness." Nikki stuck her tongue out at him. "I'll let you know when that will be."

Nikki loved her life just then. She loved herself, her new friend Taz, and… well, you know the other one. She loved him the most, actually.


	12. Funny Joe, Cute Joe, Hot Joe

Taz could tell that Gracie was enjoying every bit of her new-found involvement with the next door neighbors. Especially Joe's little crowd of three. Taz loved hanging out over at his place now, because not only did she get to have some real girl-bonding with Nikki, but she also got to experience those quick, stolen chats with Joe. Quick, because whenever she was there, Joe was either on his way to work, or busy fixing something in the garage. Joe, for so many reasons, fascinated the living soul out of Taz. He was an all-around nice guy and she honestly couldn't seem to find anything wrong about him, except of course, when he and Nikki would be throwing mocks back and forth at each other, but even that she found adorable. Joe also had this way of being this sensitive dad for a minute and then morphing into this mean, funny brother the next. He was maintaining two crucial roles around two people and found a way how to balance them. Taz loved witnessing that. What an irony that she had thought he was the bad guy at the beginning.

Taz wanted to go and consult Nikki about the whole babysitting issue that had emerged the day before, and she was so used to being inside the Larot residence that she let herself in through the backdoor. Walking inside the little lawn, a sweaty Joe washing his silver Mercedes brightened her morning like you can't imagine.

"Hey, Joe!"

"Hey there, gorgeous." Joe stood up from his stooping position and Taz had a perfect view of his body covered only in a white tight-fitting tee and a pair of faded Levi's. Taz knew he was what people call "easy on the eyes" but never expected he was this "easy."

"Watcha doing, good-looking?" Taz cursed and bit her lip in the name of God.

"Just cleaning her up. Nikki's out with Isabelle, if you're looking for her." He said, smiling and showing Taz that dimple she dreamt about the night before. Yeah, weirdly enough, she was having a dream about it. A very, very nice dream, if somebody were to ask her.

"Oh, okay." Taz said, half-disappointed, half-jumping for joy. Now the next move. "Should I come back later then, you seem a little busy…"

"No, no, no, I'm just finishing up actually. Please stick around if you don't mind." Oh, no, she definitely, most certainly wouldn't.

"Yeah, why not." Taz said casually, sitting on an unoccupied stool that was probably placed there exactly for her. Oh, stop daydreaming, you!

Taz could hear the sound of loud music blasting off from somewhere inside the house. "You having a little party back there?"

"Yeah. It's a fullhouse. The guys decided to stop by and eat and drink everything in my house." Joe said, sounding amused. "Hope they don't find my Twinkie stash."

Taz had a time to respond to that with a laugh before asking "So how's the arm?"

"Oh, the arm?" Joe did a macho pose and gave his arm a quick kiss. "The arm is the charm."

Taz chuckled. "What?"

"I think it's the one that got us that gig in Vegas." He said, grabbing the brush and scrubbing it all over the hood. "Thanks to you."

"No, I'm pretty sure it's because you are good, plain and simple." Not that Taz would know 'coz she had never seen dance them before. But Nikki had nothing but positive feedbacks about them, so that had to count for something. "So, Vegas, huh?"

"Yeah, the classic Sin City."

"That must be exciting. You guys must really be good to score yourselves a gig there."

"I know. I still can't believe it. One day you're dancing at clubs and community gatherings, and next thing you know, bam, you're having your own show in Sin City."

"So, when's the big day?" Taz asked, though she already knew the answer.

"We're actually only weeks away." Joe said, reveling in his excitement. "I can barely wait to get some Sinning done."

"I'm sure Vegas is lucky to have you guys."

"You don't know that. You haven't even seen us onstage."

"All right, you got me. I may not have seen you and your little dance crew do your thing but I have no doubt in my mind that you're good."

"And why do you say that?" Joe asked, crossing his arms, slim bulges folding together perfectly.

"Because… I don't know…" Taz panicked; she frigging panicked. Because the truth was all her mouth wanted to say was "because you're hot, period." "Because you're Joe. You're good at everything."

Taz saw the little faint of red on Joe's cheeks and smiled. "Oh, we only met, what, four days ago, the beginning of which you mistook me for a kidnapper? And you think you already got me all figured out?"

"Trust me, I have a very efficient radar that comes handy during first impressions. I trust people, and I trust my radar for trusting people."

"Really." Joe narrowed his eyes and stepped closer to her. "Was that your radar that told you I probably might be a big, bad guy who steals away kids for a living when we first met?"

Taz found herself punching him in the arm. "OW!" Joe massaged the sore spot on his manly bicep. "Are you always this violent?"

"Oh, Joe, I'm more violent than you can imagine."

"Ooh. Scary. Whatcha gonna do? Wedge me?"

"You really a man of mockery, you know that?" Taz said, suppressing a laugh as Joe started making cross-eyed faces. "I can't even stand looking at you right now."

"Ahh, see? Now you're just saying that because you find my face irresistibly handsome. So handsome that you can't take it." This time Taz really did feel her laugh impulse give out. "I mean, with perfectly chiseled cheekbones, and deep-set blue eyes and wishy-washy long, blonde hair, who wouldn't want this? Who?"

"Definitely not me, Adonis."

` "I may be perfect on the outside, but who am I in the inside?" Joe finished his little drama by squishing the sponge over his head and letting the water pour all over himself, and overdramatically shaking the excess water off his head as though in slow-motion, like the ones likely to be seen on Mexican soap operas. Taz laughed so hard it almost hurt. Humor played a big role in Joe's well-being.

"But seriously though, you arm, Joe." Once recovered, Taz said. "Is it healing yet?"

"Oh, it's almost as good as new."

"Does little Belles still hate me?"

Yeah, one minor problem she had with this house was Belle, who was still not talking to her that much, unlike her talkative father and aunt.

"She's just still getting used to the idea that you can still make friends with someone who's capable of physically hurting you." Joe explained. "Still explaining that little part to her."

"Well, I do hope she starts warming up to me soon, 'coz I can't resist those soft, rosy cheeks."

Isabelle was probably one of the cutest, if not, the cutest, babies she had ever seen in her life. She was a baby doll in human form, only more animated and ten times more adorable. With that wavy soft hair, and that cute, charming dimple. Huh. Funny how that reminded her of Joe.

"Oh, yeah. She's one fine kid, all right. I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night, asking myself how I'd manage to make such a beautiful little girl."

Taz laughed. "No… It's not so hard to tell where she got her looks from."

Joe locked his eyes into hers for while, that got her blinking for several times, and said, "You're talking about me right? Because if you're talking about Nikki, I'm gonna be so upset I may not be able to look at myself in the mirror again."

"Seriously, though." Taz said, after giggling like a little girl again, "I mean it, Joe. She's got your dimple."

"She has, huh?" For once, Joe did look serious, and gave her a sugary, dimpled smile.

"Hey, Punk, I think we've run out of booze, oh…"

Taz had a moment to consider that a man just walked in on them in their Zen of peace and ruined their whole alone moment, which was precious and rare. Ugh, good going, pal.

"Oh, I see you've got company there." The man teased Joe, and whoa, he was cute, if Taz had time to assess him.

"Why, you have a firm grasp of the obvious, man." Joe said, half-frowning, half-smirking. "Taz, Rynan. Rynan, Taz."

"Well, that's convenient." The guy called "Rynan" said. "So, Taz… hey."

Taz smiled and shook his reaching hand. "Hey, Rynan."

"I don't think I've ever seen you before."

"New neighbor." Joe supplied.

"New neighbor?" Rynan's eyes formed into cute, round saucers. "You're…She's…"

Joe nodded like he understood all the missing words, and unceremoniously enough, Taz did, too.

"Nice meeting you. Wow." Rynan faced Taz at that moment with enough awe as though it was the first time he really took the time to look at her. Like REALLY look at her. Being a knife warrior did have its advantages. "I didn't know you and Joe are friends now."

"Yeah, she ain't so bad without her scary Samurai sword." Joe kidded, gaining a playful shove from Taz. "See? Look at her. Isn't she just cute?"

"She's not the woman I had in mind, if that's what you're trying to say." Rynan said. "Anyway, dude, booze. We're out of booze."

Joe scratched the back of his head and sighed. "Then go get some at the store, Rynan. I gotta go and change."

"Yeah, why are you all wet?"

"She poured the water all over me!" Joe pointed his finger accusingly at Taz, this time getting a disbelieving glare from her.

"I so did not!" She gasped in feigned disbelief.

"Did too!"

Rynan shook his head distractedly. "Seriously, Joe, you gotta give us alcohol, otherwise it'd be so easy to go and sneak into the wine cellar downstairs…"

"Don't even think about it, Rynan. That cellar hasn't been touched in years."

"Exactly. So if you don't want our hands on those babies, get us drinks. Kapish?" Rynan finished, knowing that he had won already. "So, hey, it was a pleasure knowing you, Taz, but if you can excuse me for a moment, I have five grown men to attend to."

"Of course. And ooh, the pleasure is mine." Rynan beamed at her one last time before dashing back to the house.

"Story of my life." Joe sighed. "The provider of food and drinks for six completely capable men. Can I serve a more demeaning purpose?"

"Go up and get changed, Joe." Taz simply said.

"Why, will you wait for me?" There was so much more meaning in his smile than Taz was prepared to see. A few seconds had passed before Joe broke the silence and began gathering all the washing equipment. "Please stick around; I'd like the guys to meet the girl who nailed my sorry ass."

Ass? Suddenly Taz's eyes were on Joe's denim-clad buttocks like it was all they could do. She snapped herself back to sanity and braved herself to face an almost amused Joe. What had she done? "Yeah, of course, I'd like to meet them all, too. Knowing five other Phil's is kinda exciting." Taz adored Phil. He was cute and his smile was just an apple of the eye. It wasn't difficult to see why Nikki felt the way that she did about him.

"Oh. Well, you just wish it's five other Phil's, and not five other Joe's." He said.

Oh, it'd be difficult to be crushing on seven Joe's, would it?

Wait, was she really into him? Was Taz really beginning to see this guy in a less platonic light now? Geez. He had a baby, for Heaven's sake! This was wrong.

But wait. Why was she so worried? What was wrong with having a light, harmless crush on someone, anyway? Because that's what this was all about – just a crush and nothing major. Right?

Riiight?

"Taz?"

"Yeah." Taz realized she'd spaced out for awhile back there.

"Let's go inside?" Joe's eyes were suggestive but void of malice.

Taz nodded as her mind was asking the same "Right?" over and over again. She was too preoccupied looking at Joe to give an answer just then, though.

Unable to take the smile off her face, she followed him as they both made their way into the house.


	13. A Little Bif of a Pep Talk

Once Nikki told Joe about her decision of committing her services to temporarily babysitting Phil's children before the permanent nanny got back from her honeymoon, Joe had that evil laugh that either said he knew she'd mess it up, or he thought she was kidding. Nikki wasn't really sure which one, but she did know that she wanted to murder Joe and his mean, mean ass. Why he couldn't be just supportive of her – she never knew. His laughs evaporated, though, as one major detail hit him hard in the crotch. "But who's gonna look after Isabelle now?" Nikki would've cared to help him figure it out if she wasn't so pissed off at him.

Nikki and Isabelle spent the day at the Arcade. She didn't know why she agreed when Joe suggested it. He said it'd help her gain more insights about the complicated world of babysitting. And really, she did think it helped her be more prepared for the kind of dilemma that she was about to throw herself into; she had no tinnie-tiny idea what to expect from this – from the job, from the kids, from Phil.

For a moment there, she had a choice between panicking or being calm and confident that everything would fall into place. But really, who was she kidding? She only had a choice to panic and that's it! She couldn't just sit down and take everything as it goes. She should do something productive that would lead to something that would surely impress Phil out of his pants. Ahhh… she meant mind, not pants, "impress Phil out of his mind." sorry.

So yes, she spent quality time with her adorable niece for one whole day and hoped it would do her good.

Taz called that night to check on her.

"So?"

"So what?"

"When are you starting?"

"Tomorrow…?"

"Have you met his kids before?"

"Yeah, of course. Jaya and Xavier are the cutest little things."

"Just remember to relax and breathe and take it easy."

"I'm about to take care of children, Taz, not go into labor."

"Ah, what's the difference, eh?"

Huh. Taz had a good point.

"So I met your brother's friends today by the way."

"You did." Nikki cradled the phone between her cheek and shoulder as she applied black nail polish on her toes. "So how was it? Did the seven plagues happen?"

Nikki liked to call them that sometimes because when those seven were together but not together to rehearse, they usually caused trouble.

"No, they were all nice." Taz said. "That Phi was really sweet."

"Yeah, everyone likes Phi. We call him the Vietnamese Tease."

Taz laughed at the other line. "Why?"

"I don't know. Because the other guys like to make fun of each other, that's why." Nikki said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "What do you think of Ben?"

"Ben is the silent type, he didn't talk much but he did say he loved those cookies that I baked."

"Silent type?" Nikki scoffed. "The 'silence' is his weapon to attract women. He's not really all that silent when he's with his mom."

"Oh, Nikki." Taz chuckled. "What about that long-haired Chris, huh? He's kinda goofy."

"Yeah, he's a retard if that's what you're saying." Nikki blew to dry her wet toenails.

"He is so not! I like him; he's passionate."

"Oh, you wanna talk about passion? Take a look at Kevin first… then we can talk about passion."

"Oh, yeah, the black guy. I love him. He was smiling a lot. It looked like he has too many inspirations in the world or something."

"He is inspired, all right." Nikki said, suddenly remembering the wonderful news that Joe had just told her. "He's gonna be a father."

"Ooh, I remember how he kept inserting that randomly between conversations, it's adorable."

There was a few second pause before Nikki asked, "So what do you think of Rynan?"

"Rynan is…" Taz trailed off and then sighed dreamily, "Rynan has beautiful, honey-brown eyes."

Nikki did a double take and then burst out laughing. "You should hear yourself say that."

"What? I'm just being honest. Hey, don't even pretend that you don't find at least one of them attractive, Ms. I-am-too-scared-to-face-the-truth-that-I-want-Phil-Tayag-and-his-sexy-ass."

"Shh!" Nikki's eyes grew so terrifyingly wide she thought she might sprain something. She glowered at the endless giggles at the other end of the line. "I hate you."

"You hate everyone who knows about your little secret. You hate me, you hate Joe…"

"Speaking of Joe, you guys seem to be getting along pretty well," Nikki threatened, "which I don't think you mind at all."

Taz let out an uncharacteristic laugh. "This is barely about me and him. This is about you and your stubbornness to admit the fact that you're into Phil. And I can't blame you; he's hot."

"You and Joe are exactly of the same breed. I don't know why I put up with you."

"It's too obvious, Nik. It's not something you can run away from forever." Taz was talking like she was on top of the world, maybe not on top of the world, but definitely on top of Nikki. Pssshhh. "Eventually it's gonna know how to crawl its way up to the surface."

"There's no arguing with you, is there?" Nikki gave up reasoning with this woman.

"Nope." Taz said proudly. "Why are you afraid of your feelings, Nik? Why? Having feelings for another human being is not a crime."

"It is if he's your brother's best friend, and the biggest jerk in the face of the earth." Nikki spat out.

"It doesn't seem like Joe has any problem with it at all, and well…" Taz paused, "I think Phil's sexiness lies on the fact that he can be a funny jerk sometimes."

"Oh, please, Taz." Nikki grumbled, losing what little energy she had and plopped her exhausted self down the bed. "I can take funny. But that guy? He flirts with everyone who looks good in a skirt, says the nastiest jokes, eats with his mouth open and burps in your face."

"In other words, he's a guy."

"No, Taz, you don't get it." She whined. "Phil is hardly the guy who can commit himself into a relationship. He's the type who just likes to have fun, to let loose and eat pizza with my brother."

"You don't know that, Nikki."

"Well who knows what goes on in that guy's head?" It didn't take for a genius to figure out that Phil wasn't the type of guy who'd take you seriously, in every sense of the word 'seriously.' And Nikki knew he wasn't the ideal man to be attracted to, but boy, did that stop her from wanting him anyway? Hell to the No. "I don't understand myself. I don't get, why, all of the people, of all the six of them that I can choose from, I chose him. It's tragic, is what it is. I mean, why can't it just be Phi? Or Ben? Or even Chris?"

"Well, Kevin is married, so…"

"Excluding Kevin." Nikki rolled eyes her eyes.

"Do you really want me to answer that, or is that one of those rhetorical questions that you're supposed to let hang in the air?" It sounded though that it mattered the least bit to Taz if it was a rhetorical question or not, because she was gonna answer it anyway. "You chose Phil, and not anyone else, because he's a perfectly sweet guy, he's cool and he has that confident air about him that makes him the easy-going dude that he is. I imagine him being a guy who'd mess things up, and instead of wallowing in his defeat, he would handle the situation with poise and grace. And please don't get me started on that damned smile…"

Nikki, out the blue, found herself grinning like a Lottery winner. "Yeah, the smile is the problem here."

"See?" Taz said, "You ain't wrong lusting after him."

"Lusting after him? Taz!" Nikki hated it when someone got to her mind.

"Oh, you and your wall of defense. So, tell me, Nikki, is this baby-sitting adventure of yours exciting or what?"

"I'm doing this for the money and nothing else." Nikki didn't feel good lying about it, and really, what was the point of hiding things from someone who knew you too damn well, regardless of how little time you have spent together?

"You keep telling yourself that and let's see how long your nose will have grown by tomorrow, Pinnochio."

"Okay, fine! The truth is, I'm freaking scared. I'll be seeing him more often now seeing as I'll be with his kids at his place."

"Oh, don't be. He'll be gentle."

"Oh, shut up!" Nikki giggled. "Seriously, though. It's freaking me out. I hope I won't humiliate myself or anything."

"Actually, I am kinda excited to see what will come out of this."

"Wish me luck?" Nikki didn't have anything to say but that. She just hoped everything would fall into place.

"My prayers are with you, Nik." Taz said. "Hey, will you look at the time? I guess it's time for my beauty rest."

"Ha-ha-ha. Alright, I'll talk to you tomorrow. I'mma have to get my nails done anyway."

"Yeah, yeah. All right." Taz added, "Say hi to Phil for me in your wet dreams, okay?"

"Eww." Nikki grimaced. "And yeah, sure, I will."

"Ha-ha. Goodnight, perv."

"Taz?"

"Yeah?"

"I feel like I've known you forever." Nikki finally said aloud.

"Aww…" Nikki laughed when Taz overdramatized it a bit. "Ditto. But seriously, though, I have to go."

"Aight. Goodnight."


	14. At La Provence

Taz wanted to hug her brother through the phone when she got a surprise call from him. Rob was in town for a business trip and didn't bother telling her anything about it because yes, as typical as it might sound, he "wanted it to be a surprise." He said he had arranged a lunch date with her at his French restaurant uptown, and that it was probably all the time he could spend with her while he was in Sac since his schedule allowed no opportunity for extracurricular activities. Taz said "Okay, I'll be there at 12:00 sharp. See you." before hanging up the phone. She ran downstairs, eager to hear Gracie's reaction for what she was about to reveal to her, but stopped dead when an all-too-knowing Gracie confessed to being an accomplice of this whole scheme. "You knew he'd be visiting?" Taz exclaimed, not sure if she could trust anyone in her life at this point. "Does Bud know, too?" Gracie's pug, Bud, looked at her with lazy, unimpressed eyes while Gracie told her off with a simple, "I know everything."

She called Nikki but the answering machine picked up. "Hey, Nik, my brother's visiting town, about to have lunch with him. Sorry I can't stop by anymore, but hey, just wanna wish you luck and remind you to kick ass. Call me, perv. Let me know how it turns out. Bye."

She grabbed her keys, kissed the twins good-bye, and told Gracie, "I still haven't forgiven you" and flew out of the door. This was her first time to go out on her own, unguided. She should be worried but she just missed her brother too damn much to be bothered by anything else. The cab trip to that French restaurant whose name she couldn't even pronounce without humiliating herself didn't take that long. Before she knew it, she was already paying the driver and stepping into a high-class French diner.

The restaurant was, as she expected, the type you'd only see in magazines and James Bond movies. It was elegantly fancy, filled with wealthy-looking people in their nine-hundred-dollar suits. Huh. Describes her brother's general preference perfectly. She went to ask the lady-in-waiting about her brother's reservation and was ushered to a table nearest the window overlooking the busy street outside.

Time check: 12:10. Huh. It wasn't like Rob run late for anything. But then of course, it could be just the traffic. No need to get all riled up. The waiter came by her table, but she shooed him away immediately. She checked her phone for any messages from Nikki, or from Rob, for that matter, but nada. She sighed and slipped it back inside her purse. It wasn't long enough before she was looking at her watch again: 12:25. He said 12pm sharp, or did Taz get it wrong and he actually meant 12am? But she couldn't possibly be stupid enough to mistake 'midnight dinner' for 'lunch.' Ugh. She tapped her fingers agitatedly against the table, beginning to get worried. Taz hoped whatever was keeping Rob would suffer a slow, painful death. Another twenty minutes had passed and Taz still found no sign of her brother coming. If she cared enough at this moment to go down memory lane, she'd realize that it was so typical of her brother to arrive late on family dinners, or any gathering, for that matter. That's because his promotion at the architectural firm that he worked at back in New York demanded too much of his time. Too, too much. Maybe this was one of those too-common occasions that Rob would miss dinner and send apology flowers later. Ugh. But she missed him! She crossed her arms and pouted into space, sinking down her chair.

"Waiting for someone?"

She thought she had fallen asleep before hearing a familiar voice that shook her awake. Her eyes moved up from being glued to the floor for so long and went wide as a beaming Joe stood before her.

"Joe." Her eyes blinked over and over and over again like they had a mind of their own. Of course it's Joe, idiot. "What are you doing here?"

He smiled and dropped his eyes to the floor, gesturing to the white overall he was wearing, or rather, uniform, Taz recognized at once. Why, of course. Joe did say he was a chef at (insert weird French word here) which Taz assumed was the name of a restaurant, this restaurant.

"Wow. You work here." For the first time since she got there, she felt the urge to smile.

"I certainly do." Joe said. "And I was on my way out for my lunch break when I saw you. I thought I'd come and say 'hi'."

Always a gentleman you are, Joe. "Well, hey. Come sit down. You look so handsome in your chef suit."

Joe let out a shy laugh and pulled up a chair. "Yeah, I'm not gonna lie and say you're the first woman to tell me that."

Taz rolled her eyes, gradually growing immune to Joe's antics. "Seriously you look gorgeous. I guess I'm just not used to seeing you in this kind of grooming."

"You ain't looking so bad yourself." Joe said. "So… you wanna tell me what Nikki's up to?"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, come on. How she ended up accepting Phil's job offer is still vaguest thing to digest for me."

"She just needs extra cash and Phil became the answer to her prayers." Taz didn't know why there was a defensive tone in her voice.

"Oh, please. I've lived with Nikki all my life. And the Nikki that I know wouldn't do something as brave as this even if it costs a million bucks. Nikki's a coward, always has been." Taz was about to agree with him, but forced her mouth to shut in place. "I mean, don't even pretend like you don't know she has a thing for him. You and I both know that."

Taz nodded hesitantly, unable to decide which side to take.

Joe tilted his head self-confidently and asked, "You've talked about this with her, haven't you?"

Taz didn't say anything.

"It's ok, Taz. Whether Nikki likes it or not, I am aware of her feelings for my best friend. And that's not even the problem here. The problem is that she's too afraid facing those feelings."

Taz's eyebrows knotted together. It was weird listening to Joe's take on this. "You're really okay with her having 'feelings' for your friend, Joe? You're her big brother; aren't you supposed to be all protective and… restrictive?"

Joe shrugged. "I don't see any reason why I should be. I can't stop my sister from falling in love with a guy even if he's my best friend."

Falling in love? Huh. Funny how Taz never saw it that way.

"I should be thankful even that it's Phil she's falling in love with…" There goes the L-word again, "and not some drunkard from the Bronx."

Taz had a spur-of-the-moment thought that she wanted Joe to be her brother. He was simply the best. He looked at things in a better perspective. In a better standpoint. And he understood things better than anyone else could, why else did you think it had been so easy for him to forgive her after what she'd done to him? But witnessing him in his chef uniform and in that boyish, humble smile, she knew siblinghood was not the relationship she really wanted to get involved with him. Hell no.

"Wow, Nikki sure is lucky to have a brother like you, Joe." And she meant it, a hundred per cent meant it.

"Oh, stop it, you're making me blush." He cooed, bashfully covering that dimpled face with his hands, "Seriously, though, what made Nikki do it? You should know. You've been with her all this time."

"All I can tell you is that Nikki needs money fast and saw Phil's little search for a nanny as an opportunity." And honest to God, that was all Taz knew. "Whatever that will come out of it is beyond my knowledge." Taz pursed her lips. "But aren't you excited to find out?"

Joe smiled like he understood all too well. "Yep. You have no idea."

"You're the coolest brother ever."

"Brother?" It's not what he said, it's the way he said it.

When Taz found herself too choked up to speak, Joe decided to take the things in a different road. "So, you're waiting for someone or something?"

"Yeah." Taz's gloomy mood came back as she suddenly remembered his brother and his missing-in-action status. Taz looked at her watch and oh, an hour late. Great. "Looks like he can't make it anymore."

Joe said nothing and simply stared at her.

She felt her face reddening. "What?"

"Nothing." Joe said. "Just, well…"

"What?" Taz asked, louder this time.

"Nothing."

"Joe…"

Joe looked like he was about to say something when Taz's phone found that perfect opportunity to ring. She searched through her purse and expectedly, she saw the name '_Kuya_ Rob' blinking at the phone display. About freaking time. Unceremoniously she said, "Are you dead or something?"

"Am I speaking to Tazeana Tan?"

Okay, Taz knew her brother's voice and it wasn't it. "Yes, that's me." She said, confused.

"Are you Robert Tan's sister?" The man on the other end of the line asked.

"Yes, I am." She looked at Joe then and flashed him a bemused look, which Joe returned with a questioning look of his own.

"Um, I'm calling to inform you that your brother met a car accident this morning, and currently he's admitted to…"

"What?" Taz asked, getting to her feet, her voice loud enough to rouse attention from other patrons. Joe got to his feet, too, worried. "What do you mean, met an accident?"

"The rental car that your brother was using was involved in a car collision downtown at around 11:30, and luckily enough paramedics were able to get there on time and wheel him safely into the ER."

"Is he okay? Is he alright? He's not dying, is he?" Taz couldn't care less if she was disturbing the peace of the people in there – his brother just met an accident, for Christ's sake!

"Ms. Tan, please I need you to calm down."

"Don't tell me to calm down! You tell me if he's okay or not!" Taz flared up, feeling her heart was about to explode.

"If you really wanna know, come visit him in Sacred Heart Hospital where he's currently at."

"Wait, I – " Taz's jaw dropped to the floor when she heard the other end hang up on her. "Hey!"

Taz jumped up when she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Taz, what's going on?"

"I'm not really sure. The man on the phone told me my brother had a car accident."

"What?"

"I gotta go see him. He says my brother's admitted to Sacred Heart Hospital. I have no idea where that is but I'm about to find out." Taz grabbed her purse and was about to leave when she felt the hand on her shoulder.

"Wait, I'll drive you."

"Are you sure?" Taz didn't know whether to cry or scream at the drama that was currently going on in her life right now.

"Yeah, I know where Sacred Heart is, Rynan works there. I'll take you."

"No, Joe. I wouldn't wanna bother you."

"I insist. Please let me."

Taz's eyes did start to well up just then. Great.

"Alright, let's go."


	15. And the REST!

Nikki's hands were sweating like pigs as the cab pulled up in front of the Tayag residence. It was never easy for her to be left alone with Phil and act casual about it. See, this is how it actually worked. The first minute with him usually was the hardest to get past. It would be awkward, Nikki would futilely hide her nervousness, and Phil would be all cocky and so self-assured like he's having the time of his life putting her in that kind of out-of-control, uncomfortable ordeal. But the next minute would start to mellow down, Nikki would find herself getting used to the idea of him, he would start acting more sensitive and a little less pompous and they'd, out of the blue, have a real conversation. Nikki and Phil could be friends. They really could. But the problem was Nikki was helplessly, desperately crazy about him. That was the problem. Psh.

She couldn't even remember where it all began. Maybe it started the year before, or the year before that. Maybe. Nikki was sure, though, that she despised that day. If she could just turn back time and erase it all and refresh her life. Because look at what it led her now. She was involved with a man she loved to hate and hated to love. Crap! Funny how those phrases fit the situation that she was trapped in perfectly.

"Wow, you're early." Phil was wearing only a pair of boxer shorts when he got down and opened the door for her. He gave her a head-to-toe scrutiny, and suddenly Nikki felt self-conscious in her own well-treated skin.

"I'm not. You just woke up late." Nikki simply said.

Phil gave her a full-out smile, his eyes crinkling into delicate slits of perfection, and she found herself out of breath in the middle of a windy day. If there was a laboratory-tested immunization to Phil Tayag's charms, Nikki would pay every cent that she had to get a shot. "Come on in. And please excuse the mess, house keeping hasn't arrived yet."

As Phil stepped back to give way to her, she caught the calming scent of his bath gel. He was just done showering, Nikki thought miserably and if she would just quit picturing him naked in the shower, well, that would really help, thank you very much. Phil had a sexy voice, too, just sexy enough to give justice to those sexy lips, and him laughing just then woke Nikki from her daytime perverted thoughts. The laugh that almost said he knew exactly what she was thinking about.

"The kids are upstairs; do you want me to call -"

"Nikki!"

Nikki was almost knocked over as two pairs of arms hugged her legs from behind.

"Or not." Phil said fondly.

"Hey, kids." Nikki turned around to face two wide-eyed, adorable kids. It had been a while since she last saw Jaya and Xavier, and well, they hadn't grown much since. They were still the healthy, noisy kids they were back then. "I missed you, guys."

"We missed you too, Nikki!" The older one, Jaya, said. "Daddy said you're gonna be our new nanny. Are you? Are you?"

"Well…" Nikki was about to explain the temporariness of this job but caught the look of disapproval on Phil's eyes, so she decided to let it rest for now. "Yes, Jaya. I'm gonna be looking after your cute little butts from now on."

"Cool!" Jaya cooed and the Xavier, the little boy, said nothing more than a spit bubble, seeing as he wasn't old enough to talk yet. But it was evident to Nikki that both kids were happy to have her as their new caretaker. Which she was infinitely thankful for, and which was a lot of weight off her shoulder.

"Nikki, come here!" Jaya grabbed her hand and started dragging her away. "I'm gonna show you the new Barbie house that Daddy got me!"

"Ok, sure." Nikki hesitantly followed, looking back at Phil who had a two-hundred-watt smile on his face.

"Are you gonna be ok, Nik?" He asked, and if Nikki was to assess that, she'd say he was concerned.

"They're children below ten, Phil, what have I got to worry about?"

"Nikki, hurry!"

"Alright, then, if you say so." Phil shrugged and marched to the other side of the room, where, if Nikki remembered right, the kitchen was.

The first few hours with the kids were not so bad, unlike she expected. After all, they were kids who had these treasures aka rubbish to show you and would wonder endlessly if you didn't show any interest in them. Nikki realized then that baby-sitting wasn't only about 'taking care' of the kids, it also meant that you reduce your level of knowledge to theirs and become their oversized playmate. She spent her whole morning feeding plastic pellets to baby dolls and army robots. Jaya was the talkative one, who talked about everything she had seen under the sun. Nikki listened fondly to her every word, every diction, and somehow deep down those round brown youthful eyes, she could see Phil Tayag's seven-year-old counterpart staring right at her. It wasn't a wonder where little Jaya got the sociable attitude from. The little long-haired Xavier, though, was rather reserved and kept mostly to himself. Nikki owed it to the fact that maybe he wasn't even old enough to understand what they were talking about, much less respond to it.

Phil looked in on them around lunch time to say goodbye. "Alright, babies. Daddy's off to work. Where's my kiss?" Jaya and Xavier scrambled up from where they were seated at the floor and rushed to their daddy to give him sloppy kisses on the cheek. "Nikki, there's a list of instructions and contact numbers I left on refrigerator. In case of any emergency whatsoever, you can call me on my cell." Nikki nodded in the most civil way that a person could pull off and then wondered idly if she was successful with it. "You kids be nice to Nikki, all right? Aight, I'm out." He said one last time before slamming the door shut.

"Ok, who wants lunch?" Like tiny horse feet, the kids trudged excitedly over her horizontal body on the floor.

It took them about thirty-minutes-worth of discussion before somebody came up with an idea that everybody agreed to: Bolognese.

"But Mommy said we can't have Bolognese till Thanksgiving." Jaya said.

Nikki had a sudden image of Heidi in her head, Heidi and her inhumanly large boobs, and decided to push it out immediately. Heidi was the mother of these kids, but, Nikki was more than happy to say, she and Phil were no more than friends now. And they had been keeping it civil since they broke up for good. Well, at least, she hoped they'd been keeping it civil.

"Really, why?" Nikki asked, her eyebrow raised, and set the oven timer.

"She says it's not healthy."

Like she'd know healthy, Nikki thought grimly, picturing Heidi and her heavyweight figure. "Well, Mommy's not here, now, is she?"

Jaya giggled like she understood all too well, flinging her dangling feet back and forth excitedly. Xavier, on the other hand, seemed unresponsive to everything. He simply sat inanimately at the one of the tools around the island.

"Xavier, is there something wrong, honey?"

The little boy shook his head weakly.

"He's always like that when there's someone new." Jaya, spoken like a true sister, said. "Nikki, what's gay?"

Nikki's eyebrows curled. "What do you mean?"

"Jimmy said that Xavier might be gay since he doesn't talk much and looks like a girl."

"Who's Jimmy?"

"He's the kid next door who says I'm not tall enough to do ballet. He also said he has seen Harry Potter in real life."

"Well, in that case, Jimmy is a kid full of insecurities. Don't you be listening to anything he says."

"What's insecurities?"

"Insecurity is a feeling of discontentment about one's self. And sometimes when you're insecure, you try to make yourself feel better by pulling other people down and saying mean things about them, just like your friend Jimmy."

"What's 'discontentment'?"

"Discontentment is that sense of dissatisfaction where you just find yourself in need of something more."

"What's 'dissatisfaction'?"

Nikki pursed her lips and figured they weren't going anywhere with this conversation. "Does your father ever teach you to read?"

"No, Uncle PC says Daddy's too busy 'doing pelvis pops during dark times.'" Jaya said in a matter-of-factly way that made Nikki laugh.

"Uncle PC told you that, huh? Did he tell you what it means?"

"No. Daddy won't let him. He says it's bad to say a dirty word. What's so bad about that, Nikki?"

Nikki decided that she was one of those aunts who would fill up the empty spaces in these kids' knowledge that their parents couldn't. "Let's just say it's the reason why you guys were made."

Jaya nodded her head as though she understood. "Isn't that sex?"

Just then the timer went off and Nikki heaved a big sigh of relief. Saved by the bell. "Lunch is ready."

The day stretched on uneventfully. For Nikki, anyway. Jaya seemed to be having the time of her life dressing Nikki up and doing her hair all afternoon long, while little Xavier watched them in silence with big, doe eyes. "You're like my doll, Nikki. Only bigger… and prettier."

"Why, I am honored, Jaya."

"I have an idea." Jaya said after a moment. "Let's dress you up like a bride."

"No, Jaya. I don't think your daddy would like it if you went through the linen cupboards again."

"We're not improvising here. I know where we can get a bride's gown."

So she knew the word 'improvising'? Must have heard it a lot from her Dad. Now, 'insecurities', on the other hand, probably wasn't mentioned that much in this house since Phil had none of it. Figures since he was so arrogant and proud of himself.

"Ta-da!"

Nikki was surprised to see a gown, a real white wedding gown with laces and floral embroidery and the whole mess. Nikki was so surprised she almost stepped back.

"Where'd you get that, Jaya?"

"It's Aunt Rachel's wedding dress; and it would look perfect on you."

Rachel was Phil's older sister, and Nikki had only met her once.

"Try it on, Nikki."

Oh, hell no. "I'm sorry, Jaya, but I can't."

"Aww." Jaya whined, crestfallen. "Why not?"

"I don't… I -"

"Please, please, please."

"I can't. It's your Aunt Rachel's. That's just wrong. She probably would get mad or something.'

"No, she won't. I promise, she won't. Please, Nikki, pleaaassseee…"

Nikki saw those pleading, teary eyes begging her. And really, she couldn't possibly be NOT affected by that.

"Please?"

Nikki huffed and sat down the bed, defeated. "Oh, alright."

"Yay!"

Jaya was right; the dress fit her perfectly. Rachel must have exactly been her size when she was her age. The long, haltered dress outlined Nikki's curves that she never knew she had before; the way it hugged her waist and clung to her hips, giving her legs even more shape and length. Rachel must have been the most beautiful woman on her wedding night because of this miraculous dress. Nikki couldn't even seem to take her eyes off the mirror now.

"Nikki, you're so pretty!" Jaya gushed, caressing the long line satin through her fingers. "Now, let me do your make-up."

"Jaya, I don't think…"

Before Nikki could complain, Jaya was already bringing out a huge chest of makeup accessories. Nikki didn't have this much makeup of her own. Maybe that was the price of having a guy for a sister. Huh.

"Do you know what you're doing, Jaya?"

"Yes, Mommy's taught me a lot about applying make-up."

"Wait, this is all your Mommy's? Jaya, aren't you gonna be in trouble for playing with her stuff?" Nikki remembered then that Heidi was a famous makeup artist whose services were a regular demand from A-list celebrities like Sandra Bullock, and Julia Roberts and even Angelina Jolie herself. Yes, she had superfamous customers, all right.

"No, this was Mommy's but she gives me those that she doesn't need anymore, like this one."

Nikki looked at the fountain of mini-shelves that contained probably all the colors known to mankind and grimaced. "Oh, Jaya."

"Please, Nikki, you're gonna be the most beautiful bride ever."

Bride? Nikki wasn't even comfortable with the thought of wedding, per se, much less be a part of it. Eeeck. From the look of things, Jaya wasn't gonna take 'no' for an answer anyway, so once again, Nikki allowed herself to be pulled into Jaya's little games. It did seem to Nikki, though, that the girl really did know what she was doing. Nikki liked how Jaya had that serious faraway look on her face with a brush on her hand as though contemplating hard on what right colors to apply. She probably had her mother's talent, and none of her hang-ups.

"Your sister's gonna be a famous make-up artist someday, Xavy." Nikki told the little boy seated next to her, looking up at her with big, innocent eyes. Xavier blinked like he had no remote clue what she was talking about. Nikki smiled amusedly and stroked the little kid's hair.

"Quit moving so much."

"Oh, sorry, ma'am."

Half an hour and many swishes of brush later, Nikki looked like she was ready to walk the aisle, bouquet in hand, and say "I do." Nikki stared open-mouthed at her reflection, wondering how on earth could a seven-year-old with an experience almost equal to nothing make her feel as beautiful as she was feeling right now.

"Nikki, you are my sweetest victory!"

"What?"

"That's what Mommy says to her customers after she's done doing their make-up."

"Oh." Nikki almost laughed. "You amaze me, Jaya. You really do."

"You're so pretty."

"Yeah, and it's all because of you, little princess. You're gonna go a long way when you grow up."

Nikki did a little sashay in front of the mirror, doing a complete lady-like turn and sighed. If only she was this pretty everyday.

"Kids, I'm home!"

Nikki was pulled out of her 'self-praising' moment as Phil's distinct husky voice echoed all over the house. Maybe she was too busy figuring out who the elegantly beautiful girl in the minor was that she hadn't heard Phil's car pull in the garage.

"Daddy, we're up here!" Jaya yelled.

Nikki could hear the heavy footsteps pounding against the stairs, the sound growing louder and louder, before, surely enough, Jaya's bedroom door opened and Phil's head peeked in. "Is it safe to come in?"

Jaya and Xavier dashed to kiss their seemingly cautious dad. "Daddy!"

"Daddy, come inside, I wanna show you something!" Jaya's tiny hand took Phil's and she began dragging him along with her.

It wasn't long enough before Phil saw Nikki in all her made-up glory, and the expression on his face upon landing those eyes on her made Nikki blush like an imaginary hand put red stain on both her cheeks.

"Isn't Nikki pretty?" Jaya asked excitedly, eager to hear a positive reaction from her dad. "And I did her make-up all by myself. I picked out the dress, too."

Phil's tongue seemed to buried somewhere inside his mouth and couldn't be found at the moment. So Nikki was pretty enough to make Phil Tayag speechless? Nice.

"Uh, yeah, honey…. It's… wow… and you did it all by yourself?" He finally said. He stuttered, but at least there were some audible words there. Jaya nodded proudly, her smile from ear-to-ear.

"Congrats, Jaya. You just outdid yourself once again."

"Huh?"

"It means you did a wonderful job, honey." Nikki supplied, her face burning from all the intense stares Phil was giving her.

"You certainly, did." He said, eyes still locked to her. Her face, her body, her everything. Nikki seriously wanted to curl up and melt forever. "Uh, why don't you kids go down and say hi to Uncle Phi and remind him about that tree house he promised you?"

"He's here?" Jaya asked elatedly. "Come on, Xavy, let's go and say hi to him!"

Two pairs of tiny feet ran and left the room, leaving the two of them all by themselves. Alone. With no one around. Except Nikki's desire to get off this dress right now and ignore Phil and his dangerously meaningful eyes. They could practically cut the tension in the room with a knife.

"So, you look nice." Phil said, hands in his pocket. And it was probably the only time Nikki saw him nervous, looking all the part of a blushing high-schooler waiting for his Prom date. And it was sweet.

"It's Rachel's dress." Nikki said, forcing her voice to sound casual to relieve some of the tension that was eating her.

"Oh, is it? I almost forgot." Phil smiled, a true gentleman's smile, and Nikki's heart almost stopped at the sight of it. "Well, it looks great on you."

"Really?"

Nikki's breath hitched when Phil stepped closer to her, his eyes conveying so many things. He's just looking at you that way because you're pretty right now! Nikki told herself over and over again.

"No. It doesn't look great on you." Phil's voice was so soft she almost couldn't catch it. "It looks breath-taking on you."

Oh my God, was that Phil's hand brushing her hair? Nikki froze, almost afraid, almost ecstatic. Phil's gentle finger tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and his passionate eyes gazed at her like she was the most delicate thing in the world, and no man had ever looked at her like that before. And if there was, well, she couldn't remember when. Before Nikki could react to all of this, the sound of Phi's voice at the door made Phil pull his hand away guiltily as though he had done something very, very wrong. Nikki's mind was screaming no!

"Hey, guys, was I, um, interrupting something?" Phi, the clueless guy that he always was, asked after noticing both of their disappointed faces.

From passionate, Phil's eyes turned cold and emotionless. "No, Phi. Nikki was just, um, about to say goodbye."

"You look great, girl! High-five!" Nikki forced a smile and high-fived with Phi.

When Nikki caught Phil's eyes, he said, "I think, uh, I think you're done for the day, Nikki."

"Alright. I'll see you tomorrow, then."

"Yep."

"I'm just… uh, I'm gonna go get changed."

And with a sad huff, Nikki turned around and grabbed her clothes and swore never, ever to wear a wedding gown again. Not in front of him, at least.

*****916143

Taz almost couldn't feel the weight of her feet as she dashed her way to Rob's bedside."Oh, Rob! You're okay!" She leaned down to give him a tight hug, squeezing him in her arms, albeit involuntarily.

"Of course, I am. But really, Tazee, you can let go, now; you're strangling me."

On the way to the hospital, Taz imagined all possible worst-case scenarios: Rob in crutches, his face wrapped in bandages, or a legless body. Jesus. But Robert seemed perfectly okay, if anything, he looked healthy as ever. Taz let out a deep breath of relief and clung to him even tighter.

"Wait, what did the man on the phone tell you?" Rob asked. "I told him to tell you what happened and that I'm okay."

"He didn't say shit." Taz snapped.

"Oh, see, I knew it, that damn con. I need my fifty bucks back."

"Oh, Rob. I think it'd be better if you take some rest for now." Taz's legs gave out and she let her whole body fall on her brother's side. "I was so scared that I was gonna lose you."

"Oh, shut up, Taz. I'm too early to die. I haven't even had those concreted beams incorporated to the bottomchords yet…"

Oh, Rob and his engineer-tongue. Taz shook her head and laid close beside him. "What happened?"

"I don't know; I just haven't hit the exact material estimation yet."

"No, I meant, the accident, Rob. The accident." Taz rolled her eyes.

"Oh, the accident?" Rob shrugged, like he couldn't care less. "I don't really know. All I remember was I was driving down the highway and next thing I knew paramedics were pulling me out of a lop-sided car."

"Really." Taz was thankful this wasn't gonna be one of those traumatic experiences that would scar her brother for life. "Well, do you know how relieved I am right now?"

"Sorry I wasn't able to make it to lunch, by the way." Rob said it like it mattered more than anything else, more than the accident, actually.

Taz placed a gentle hand on Rob's face, feeling the tears threatening to escape her eyes. "Oh, Rob."

"I promise you we'll eat out as soon as I get out of here."

"I'd sure love that. But please, just think of restoring your health for now, okay?"

Rob and Taz spent the next hour talking and catching up with each other. Taz told him everything that had been happening in her life for the past few weeks and left nothing untold. When she got to the part where she 'accidentally' attacked an innocent man with a knife, her brother lost it and burst out laughing. "You're a freak, is what you are." He said, before laughing all over again. Taz merely rolled her eyes and continued with her autobiography. Rob had a lot of questions about Gracie and Taz was more than eager to fill him in. He also had things to say about himself, like work, work, and ooh, work. Taz decided that her brother's life nowadays revolved around W-O-R-K. After finishing an incredibly boring monologue about the thermo calculations and wide flanges that his newly-designed building needed, Rob finally told her that the sedatives were starting to kick in. Taz smiled, understanding, and let him fall asleep and snore away like the richest man in the world. It wasn't until then that Taz realized that she, too, was exhausted beyond belief, physically and emotionally. The past few hours in the waiting room, wrestling with and being refused of admittance by snappy nurses, tired her more than any physical work that she ever had to do. She couldn't believe she'd been in his rotten hospital for hours. Good thing Joe was – JOE! Taz literally slapped her forehead as she suddenly remembered Joe; Joe, who she had to drag with her all the way from Bowmont, Joe who had generously offered his driving services. Damn, how could she forget about him? Taz walked out her brother's room and found a sleeping Joe on one of the couches in the waiting area. He laid his head on the knuckles of his hand, looking peaceful in his sleep. Taz wanted to run and give him a big, big hug. Joe had been the sweetest guy comforting her and keeping her upright with his arms from the restaurant all the way to the hospital. The last few hours had felt like hell on earth, but Joe was there to make it less difficult for her to bear. She couldn't possibly think of a way to thank him enough.

She sat down next to him on the couch and slowly laid her head on his shoulder. For some reason, Joe woke up no matter how silent she thought she moved. "Hey." He said, his voice a little groggy from the sleep.

"Hey." Taz was too tired to pull her head away.

"You okay? How's your brother?"

"He's fine. Thank God."

"Well, that's good to hear."

"Joe?" She finally looked up and gazed straight at his eyes. "Thank you for being here."

"Don't mention it." He smiled, and yes, it was nice to see that dimple in the most sentimental moment of her life.

"The past few hours have been pretty dramatic, don't you think? And then I go in there to see my brother and geez, I forgot how anti-climactic he could be."

Joe chuckled and Taz was comfortable enough to put her head back where it was seconds ago, getting the gentle whiff of Joe's cologne.

"Do you want me to get you a cup of coffee?"

"No… just um… stay." Taz mumbled, her eyes already half closed.

"Alright."

Taz woke up a few hours later to find Joe gone. His jacket was wrapped on her, though. She looked around the almost-empty waiting room, and felt an unpleasant kick in her stomach. She was hungry. She laid her head back, hating the slight pounding in her head. A hungry stomach and a headache. Perfect. Where was Joe anyway? Taz was missing him already. She thought it was pretty justifiable if she was needy right now, seeing as this was a very vulnerable time in her life. Just then she heard something stir behind her and almost instantly she felt the fullness of Joe's body land on the couch next to hers. "Ah, it's good that you're up now. I brought you some doughnut. And some aspirin, in case you need it."

This was the perfect time to say this. "I love you, Joe." Taz said, only half-joking. She reached out for the tablet and bottle of water that Joe was handing to her.

"Well, the feeling is mutual." He smiled, patting her head.

No, you don't get it, Joe. I mean, I love you. As in, I truly love you.

He took a sip from his own coffee and sank back in the chair.

"You look tired." Taz said, taking a big bite from her doughnut. "You should go home, Joe. I'll be okay here." But please don't.

He shook his head. "No, no, no, Taz. I drove you here, I am gonna drive you back, okay?"

"I feel like I am asking too much from you." Taz confessed.

"You're not." Joe's voice was soft and sleepy. "I'm glad I'm here."

"Joe, it's a hospital." They were in a hospital and it goes without saying a hospital was the last place she'd ever find herself glad to be in.

"No, I mean, I'm glad I'm helping you out." Joe laughed delicately.

Taz wondered then what his ex-girlfriend, Isabelle's mom, was possibly thinking when she decided to leave this guy. How could one person give up someone like Joe? How?

"Thank you so much." was all Taz could utter, since her throat was beginning to close up. She tried to keep the tears from spilling, though. It was too embarrassing to be breaking down after all the trouble she had caused him. Then she saw something on Joe's arm that woke her up completely – it was the scar that she left on him. Without thinking, she reached out and traced the lines gently along her fingers. Joe hummed softly, prodding her along, letting her know that it felt good. She leaned her head against the broadness of his shoulders as her fingers kept going. She could feel Joe nuzzling her hair, and Taz felt a warm flutter in her stomach.

They stayed that way for the rest of the night.

******916143

Nikki didn't really feel like going out in the sun today. She had had so little sleep the night before that she wondered if she even slept at all. After putting Isabelle to bed, she had been spending the first hours of her night watching _Time Warp_ reruns, and had almost fallen completely asleep on top of Joe's Tazmanian throw pillow when the phone rang, breaking the night silence with its irritatingly loud KRRRIINNG! It had been Joe, telling her that he was at the hospital with Taz and to not wait for him anymore. Yeah, if he had called a little earlier, maybe what he said would've mattered. Maybe he hadn't realized it'd already been one o'clock in the frigging morning. After hanging up the phone, she had found it impossible to fall back asleep again. Especially when Phil Tayag, out of nowhere, came to her mind. Nikki could never, ever, forget how he touched her hair, and looked into her eyes in that non-cocky-Phil-Tayag way; for a second there, she actually thought she mattered to him, not just as a best friend's sister who he could flirt with anytime he pleased, but as something more. Did she really? Or was she merely jumping to empty conclusions? She wouldn't know because that was the first time Phil looked at her that way. So much had changed. But she had to bear in mind Phil meant trouble and it just wouldn't work out. He probably hadn't felt the same way about her anyway; well, maybe that was for the best.

"Nikki, watch out!" Nikki was shaken awake from her reverie as Xavier's Ninja Turtle ball landed straight on her head; it hurt as hell.

Two kids crowded around her, looking up at her she slowly massaged a sore area on her forehead. She moaned only a bit, because yes, she was even too weak and drowsy to moan aloud.

"Are you ok, Nikki?" Jaya asked.

"Yeah, this is nothing." Nikki said. "You got quite a throw there, Jaya." She added fondly to relieve the guilt on Jaya's face.

"I do?"

"Yeah. You have a future in the make-up industry AND sports."

The next hour, the kids decided to do something indoor-sy, since, in Jaya's words, "Nikki didn't seem interested in playing touch ball." Thank God, she could rest her body for a while. Jaya suggested karaoke, 'suggested' meaning 'that's an order.' The kids sang to all sorts of kiddie songs, even nursery rhymes, sometimes going off-key, while Nikki rested her head for a bit, hey eyes heavy as lead. But it wasn't long before Jaya was pushing her ass up from the sofa when "Baby Got Back" was on. "Dance, Nikki, dance!"

"mmmm…" Nikki mumbled, her one eye open, the other eye closed.

So poor, sleepless Nikki booty-popped regardless of the atoms in her body begging to be pulled down and rested. Jaya and Xavier had a good laugh out of it, though, so that was consolation enough. The next song was 'Birthday Sex' and as quick as thunder, Nikki panicked and seized the remote and turned the TV off, ending with the kids' collective "Aww…."

Phil should know how to hide his adult stash better, Nikki thought uncharitably. "Uh, let's do something else."

"But we wanna sing!" Jaya whined.

"How about a movie instead?" Nikki, despite her restlessness, forced herself to sound cheerful. "What about that new movie The Corpse's Bride, eh? And I'll go fix you some popcorn and hot milk. What do you say?"

They seemed to buy it, judging from the huge smiles on their faces. Nikki rushed to the kitchen and did her business. Setting the oven timer, she dialed Taz's number. "Hey, where are you?"

"I'm at home. Gracie's making me look after the twins."

"Hey, thanks for keeping Belles."

Nikki almost forgot that Kate, Joe's biological sister, (yes, Nikki was adopted, alright) would be out of town today so Isabelle had no one to stay with. Good thing, Taz was willing to offer a hand.

"Oh, please, Nik. I'm having the time of my life baking cookies for three cute halflings."

"I'm happy Belle's not scared of you anymore."

"Nik, after the first tray of snow angel cookies I baked them, I don't think there's anything I possibly can do to make them scared of me anymore."

Nik laughed. "Hey, you gotta let me try those, too."

"I think I'm gonna need some convincing."

Taz laughed when Nikki made gagging sounds. "So how's your brother?"

"Oh, he's fine. I think the man of the phone dramatized the situation a little bit. He's actually going out today and flying back to NYC."

"Well, that should be a relief."

"It is. I'm gonna miss him so much, though." Taz said. "So enough about me, what's happening to you back there? Are the kids giving you a hard time?"

"They're, yeah, they're the devils I have to take care of my own. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink."

Taz chuckled. "Word of advice: if someone goes in there and talks to the kids, know who he is first and listen with a sober mind before attacking him with a knife. He just might be the father."

"Ha – ha – ha!"

"So how's the Dad treating you?"

Nikki wondered if she was gonna tell Taz what happened the day before. "He's okay. He's… usually at work, so I barely see him anyway."

"Oh, I see." Nikki could picture Taz's head nodding. "That sucks."

Nikki rolled her eyes. "Well, I actually think it's for the best."

Just then the timer went off, and Nikki knew she had to go. "Hey, I'll talk to you later. Gotta go watch some Corpse getting married now."

"Yeah, okay. Good luck on your share of mischief."

And with that, Nikki hung up her phone and fished the bowl of popcorn out of the microwave. When Nikki got to the living room, the movie was already starting. When the kids rushed for the food in her hand, Nikki slowly, cautiously plopped her body down the sofa and stretched her exhausted legs. She could hear Jaya saying, "I love you, Nikki…" before drifting out of reality and entering the calm, heavenly world of sleep.

Next thing she knew, she was opening her eyes to Phil's smiling ones. Was it really happening? Or was she having one of those Phil-induced dreams again?

"Hey, Nik."

"Phil!" She bolted up from her catnap, panicking, disoriented. She couldn't seem to remember what happened for the past hours of her life. "Where are the kids?"

"Relax, they're playing outside."

"I'm sorry for falling asleep." Nikki muttered, wiping the sleep from her eye. The haze adjusted and was fiddled into focus, replaced by a clear view of Phil's effervescent face.

"Did I wake you?"

"No…" Nikki shook her head, avoiding his eyes.

"What did you guys do today?"

"Karaoke, and they watched this movie…Um… I don't remember…"

"The Corpse's Bride…"

"Ah, yeah, The Corpse's Bride of course."

"So karaoke, huh?"

"Yeah. Your kids ran into 'birthday sex', by the way."

Phil laughed and clapped his hands. "Perfect. What did you do?"

"I frigging panicked. What do you think I did? I – frigging – panicked."

"I'm sorry; I'll be more careful next time with hiding PC's playlists."

"PC? Yeah, right." Nikki scoffed.

Phil's soft was laugh was so sexy Nikki had to remind herself not to moan along. "Jaya made me dance to Baby Got Back."

"Like you did for my birthday?"

Nikki paused. "You remember?" Nikki and Phi decided to do this little production number as a surprise for Phil on his 20th birthday bash. It took a lot of prodding from Joe and the other guys before Nikki agreed to put on a sexy dress and shake her booty with Phi; she was sixteen, who was to blame her?

"How can I forget?" Was it her? Or Phil had just turned into this passionate guy all of a sudden?

"It was like, ages, ago."

"Four, actually, if you're counting."

Nikki scratched her head and dropped her eyes where Phil's face was nowhere in sight. It took a lot of will power not to get sucked into Phil's undaunting charms. "Hey, you have your own share of humiliation." She didn't know why but the memory of her own 20th birthday surfaced again, especially when Phil's rendition of "Birthday Sex" popped into her mind, and how all the guys struggled to pull the mic from his hand when they decided "it was starting to get a little too hot and steamy." That wasn't the first time she noticed Phil's lovable exuberance and just, well, fell in love with it, but it was the first time she saw him in a sexual way, and the first time she had the desire to picture him out of his white polo shirt. But Nikki felt so guilty afterwards that she pushed it out of her mind and left the party and ignored all the catcalls from his brother and his friends. Phil even called out, "Hey, where's my tip?" That stupid, sexy fothermucker. The stupid, sexy fothermucker that she was sitting next to right now.

"Yeah, I remember. I was so drunk that night that I kissed Phi."

"You just have no boundaries, do you?"

Phil laughed. "It was tequila; everybody goes crazy with tequila. Plus Phi can look like a girl sometimes." He reasoned.

"You get crazy with everything, Phil. Remember the time you came on to a tree and ask for its number?"

Phil laughed louder this time, laying his head on the couch, getting comfortable. "I almost forgot about that. I honestly thought I was talking to a woman. And you sad people didn't even keep me from further humiliating myself and just stood there to laugh and point your fingers at me."

"Well, it was funny! You were putting the Swagger Boy charm on for a tree! Who would be insane to cut the fun?"

"Uh, someone who actually cares about my well-being?"

"If it's any consolation, Phil, it was a pretty hot tree."

"Ha – ha – ha, very funny, Nikki." He said dryly. "Oh, what about that heinous over-all you wore for Rynan's birthday? You remember that? You certainly made some heads turns that night."

"You mean the red-turtle neck dress?"

"No, you wore that on Thanksgiving."

Nikki's mind paused for while. So Phil had actually been 'looking' at her, as opposed to just seeing her? The realization was boggling her brain like no one could imagine, and not just that, everything about Phil since yesterday changed; it was like getting to know a new person, but at the same time, feeling like she'd known that person forever. A very sweet, funny person who looked at her with gentle, sensitive eyes. This wasn't the arrogant-slash-confident Phil that would throw meaningless flirtations her way. And having him talk to her like this was liberating in so many ways.

"I'm talking about that neon green long-sleeved dress that extended down to the knees, you remember that?" Phil still hadn't sensed Nikki's curious eyes on him. "The one that Rynan described as, and I quote him, 'the only dress that can be seen from the moon.'"

Nikki shook her head, because no, she didn't remember that and no, she didn't know why they were talking about all of this now when they had never talked about all of this before.

Phil grumbled and shook his head. "My joke would've been funnier if you remembered that."

But Nikki laughed anyway. "You take notice of what I wear, Phil?"

This time, he did blush and looked nervous. He released a breath that looked like he'd been holding and said, "Hey, you know what, I'll just say it to you."

"What?"

"Rosario is back. There was no wedding after all."

"What?" Nikki found herself sitting up.

Phil nodded sadly. "Yeah, Rose changed her mind about the whole thing. She'll be back to work tomorrow."

"Oh." Nikki's heart sank as something dawned on her – her baby-sitting services were over from here.

"But uh…" Phil bit his lip, hesitating. "I've got something for you."

"Huh?" Nikki's eyebrows curled.

It looked like Phil was hauling something out from his back, and Nikki couldn't stop the breathless 'oh' from escaping her lips when Phil handed her a brand-new, shiny Canon DSLR camera. The camera of her dreams. It was there, inches away from her own hands.

"Tada."

Nikki couldn't seem to find her voice at the moment. She didn't even touch it yet for fear it would disappear.

"I just thought that you've only been working here for, what, less than sixteen hours, and wasn't nineteen your 'goal time'? And I was looking through the brochure and thought I'd get it for you. The lady said that this is the latest model that they have, and it can zoom into the farthest of distances and still give you perfectly crystal clear shots." He paused. "It's…almost perfect."

She couldn't believe it; Phil was paying a lot more attention to her and her pathetic life than she could have thought possible.

"Just like you."

"What?" Nikki's eyes snapped up. Did she hear that right?

"Nothing." Phil mumbled silently under his breath, blushing.

Nikki intended to probe more but decided to put it aside. "Phil… I…" She cleared her throat, although her voice still came out rusty. "You didn't have to."

"Go on. Take it as a, sort of, thank-you from me."

And slowly, Nikki's hands extended and clasped the beautiful gadget in them. It was so hard to believe, so hard to grasp, so hard for her to wrap her tiny little brain around the fact that this camera was now hers, that Phil got it for her, Phil who was never known to sweep a woman off her feet by buying her gifts, and that life was indeed beautiful. She gazed at him, who was smiling bashfully at her, and wanted to embrace him more than she ever wanted to hug anyone in her life.

"Don't worry; you're still getting your paycheck."

"Don't. This is more than enough." Nikki said breathlessly. "Phil, I don't know how to thank you enough."

"Oh, shut up. This isn't a part of your salary. I'm giving this to you as a friend."

Nikki hugged Phil.

Nikki hugged Phil!

She was caging him so tightly in her arms that he was caught off guard for a second. It wasn't like Nikki and Phil to hug – they weren't exactly the intimate, touchy-feely type. But this was a different day – this was Phil stepping out of the boundary line and showing the soft spot hidden away in that mysterious, unrecognized hollow in his hear that she'd been yearning to see.

And now, here she was, witnessing it front and center. Phil wasn't just about sexual innuendos and childish, shallow flirtations after all. He had a mellow side, and Nikki was the lucky one to be on its receiving end. Suddenly she felt good about her helplessly strong attraction to him, which she had condemned for so, so long.

Nikki tried to pull back but couldn't. Not when Phil was hugging her back. This was the first (and probably the only) time they shared a well-intentioned, genuine embrace. And when she did let go, Nikki fought the urge to reach out and touch Phil's face that was only inches away from hers. She fixed her appreciative, grateful eyes on him instead. Nikki didn't care whether it was awkward or not anymore; she just wanted to let down all her defenses even for just a minute, even for a just a single chance to let Phil get a glimpse of the desire she had that she had locked away in her guilt box over the years. And the gratified crinkle in Phil's eyes told her that he was seeing it.

Nikki didn't know what to do next. Was she gonna go up and look after the kids? Or was she gonna sit here and revel in the moment with Phil? What? What? The latter seemed more tempting, though.

"Well, that was nice." Phil let out a nervous, awkward chuckle. "Maybe a kiss next time?"

Nikki punched him gently in the arm, unable to take the smile away from her face. _Don't joke like that 'cuz I'm this close to kissing your lips right now._

"Thank you, Phil. Truly."

"It's my pleasure, Nik." Phil said, his eyes clouded with a hint of something deeper. "Although I am sad I won't be seeing you tomorrow anymore."

"You are?" Phil had changed – what happened to him?

"Jaya and Xavy have told me a lot of good things about you."

"Oh, kids." Nikki was gonna miss them.

"Xavier hardly ever talks but he told me last night that 'Nikki is pitty.'" Phil and Nikki laughed together. "And Jaya said that you told them they were made 'coz I was 'doing pelvis pops during dark times'."

"What, you were!"

"Were not."

"Were too."

"Were not."

"Were too."

Phil sighed, resigned. "Well, not in that phrasing." And suddenly he remembered something, "and you fixed them Bolognese."

"They loved it."

"It's not healthy."

"Since when did you know healthy, you pizza-loving guy? When?"

Five second pause. "Nah, you're right. Heidi is against them, though. Can't argue with the mommy."

Nikki tried not to be affected by that but came flat. Just the idea of the romance that Phil and Heidi once had back then disturbed Nikki to her very core. "So this is pretty neat." Nikki said as her fingers caressed the slick, newly-bought camera, her camera, trying to change the subject.

"I know."

"No, scratch that. It's not just neat. It's… it's…" Nikki stuttered, gazing in awe at it, deciding to name it 'Phil'. "It's better than I imagined."

"Well, you have good taste, what can I say?"

"It's perfect for those breath-taking chrysanthemums a few miles outside the city." She had a sudden image of the beautiful, yellow flowers that she and Joe had passed by on their way for a road trip to San Diego. "God, my professor is so gonna love my shots, he won't be hesitating giving me a fat A."

"You deserve an A, Nik."

"Did you really buy this for me, Phil?"

"No, me and the guys stole it from the Canon store uptown, and luckily, the cops were too busy watching porn to notice us."

Nikki laughed and attempted to hit him in the arm for the second time, but this time, he caught her hand, and somehow, in the midst of all these disorienting changes in the air between them, Nikki and Phil allowed their fingers to curl lazily and intertwine with each other. And the best part was the immediate intense eye contact that had Nikki melting underneath her clothes. With eyes and hands locked into each other, they stayed that way until Nikki blushed and came to her senses.

"So, um, I probably have to go." It pained her to even say it.

"You sure?" Phil didn't wanna let go of her hand.

"Yeah. But it's not that I want to, I just have to." Just so it's clear, Nikki thought.

"All right. I know I can't keep you here." Phil said, about to say something stupid any moment now. But Nikki found herself anticipating for it, as opposed to dreading it. Geez, what was happening here? "Although, there's a top-secret dungeon downstairs where I can keep you locked up for a couple of days and maybe if Joe comes looking for you… "

"Shut up." She rolled her eyes, but actually found it too cute.

"Hey, we'll be at Playbacks tomorrow, you think you can make it and watch us rehearse?"

"Sure. I won't be having any children to look after anyway, so I'm free as a bird."

"Good." Phil winked at her. "I'll be expecting you."

"You better be."

Nikki went home that afternoon with a hanger in her mouth. Life couldn't get any better than this. She had to tell Taz. Hell, she just had to the world; that she was frigging in love with Phil Tayag, it might be wrong, it might not be; she just didn't care anymore.

*****916143

When Isabelle yelled "Daddy!", Taz's heart seemed to quicken. He was finally here. She turned around, and surely enough, it was him picking Isabelle up, in his fresh black hood and a pair of Giordano shorts. Taz looked away and frantically arranged her hair and turned back around again. Her smile was so huge she was afraid her lips might rip. "Hey, you."

"Hey." Joe said, carrying Isabelle all the way to the hammock shed where Taz was. "Thanks for looking after the little one. My sister Kate had other plans today, so…"

"Yeah, Nikki told me." Taz set aside the book that she had been pretending to read. "I'm glad I can help, Joe."

"Did you and Aunt Taz have fun today?" Joe asked Isabelle, sitting her on his legs as he sat down next to Taz on the hammock.

Isabelle nodded her head heartily. "Aunt Taz cook me cookies."

"Did she now?" He nuzzled her ear affectionately, an act that had Taz's heart melting. One thing Taz loved about Joe, among a million others, was that he was an exceptionally affectionate and loving dad. "Looks like your mad skills at cooking was all it took to win my daughter's hand, huh?"

Taz laughed. "Looks like it."

"So your brother flew today?"

"Yep. We had one lunch and kaboom, he's back where he was."

"I wish I'd gotten a chance to meet him."

Well, how sweet was that. "Yeah, his schedule was too tight to allow room for any extra activity. I know, him being an engineer sucks big time."

"So, Taz, if you don't mind…" Joe cleared his throat. "Was it him that you were waiting for yesterday at the restaurant?"

"Yeah." Taz said. "Why?

"Nothing. I just." There was a little smile in his eyes. "I thought you were waiting for your boyfriend or something. I know it's not my business to pry on, I'm sorry."

Oh. "No, it's OK, Joe. I'm glad you actually asked. Well, at least now you know." I don't have a boyfriend so you're free to take me anytime you want, Taz wanted to add.

They exchanged a quiet, private look with so much understanding behind it. Isabelle was too busy playing with the strings on her dad's hood to notice. "Would you like to have dinner?" Taz waited for the 'with me' but none came.

"Dinner?"

"Yeah, tonight. I'm having the guys over for a dinner. I have a new recipe I'd like you guys to try." Joe explained. "So… what do you say?"

"Yeah, I think Gracie will have no problem with that."

"Great." Taz gazed at the dimples again. "So, uh…" Joe began to get on his feet and Belles on his arms, "I'll see you tonight."

"Okay." She felt the tingle in her bare leg when Joe's hand absentmindedly brushed against it.

Evening came and Taz wanted to look pretty for dinner. Nikki was telling her something over the phone but she wasn't really paying any attention so much as figuring out what color of lipstick to apply. "Nikki, you have to speak slower if you want me to understand." When Nikki got to the holding-hands part, that's when Taz really listened. "No frigging way."

"Yes way, Taz." Nikki sighed dreamily.

Well, if Nikki got lucky today, she should, too, right?

"Nik, listen, I'll be coming over in a couple of minutes and then we can talk. Alright, see you in a few."

It took about half a century before Taz could figure out what to wear. Was it the orange 'Hello, I am Taz. Not the Devil' off-shoulder, or the black 'I heart Single Dads' spaghetti top. She figured the second one was too obvious, so she went with the off-shoulder. At exactly around seven, Taz left and walked about three houses before ringing the doorbell to Joe's front door. She was surprised to see Ben open it, though.

"Hey, Taz. You're here! Yo, Punkee! Your muse is here!"

Taz blushed as she crossed the doorway, shaking his head at Ben, who simply winked at her. Well, it looked like Joe was right. It was a full house. Everyone was there. And by everyone she meant, the whole gang: Rynan, Kevin, Ben, Phi, Chris, Phil, and well, the host of the dinner-slash-party Joe. Add the two girls, Isabelle and Nikki, who pulled her to her room upstairs like a bolt of lightning. "Sorry, Joe, but she's mine for now!" She yelled, getting a "yeah, girl-to-girl action. Nice…" from Chris and a reprimanding "Shut up, Chris!" from Joe from somewhere downstairs. Nikki rolled her eyes before slamming the door shut.

"What am I gonna do? He's here!"

"Nikki, you have to be more specific, everyone is here."

Nikki folded her arms and rolled her eyes. "Seriously."

"Pull yourself together. Let him know you're ready."

"For?"

"What do you mean 'for'?"

"Ready for what?"

"Well…" Taz shrugged, "Ready for whatever it is to come."

"Geez, and you accuse me of being vague. Nikki, he's here."

"You just called me 'Nikki'."

"No, I was talking to myself. I do that when I'm nervous."

"Nik, listen to me." Taz held Nikki on both shoulders. "You'll be fine. Just take a deep breath, okay?"

Nikki did take a deep breath.

"Inhale…. Exhale… That's it…" Taz said. "You're doing great."

"What now?"

"I don't know. Tell me what happened today – exactly how it happened."

Nikki shook her head. "I can't do that."

"You're blushing, Nikki. He kissed you, didn't he?"

"I think he kissed my soul."

"Aww, man! That's the lamest thing that I have heard in my life!"

Nikki and Taz shared a hearty laugh. "Seriously, there was no lip-locking of any sort. I don't think we're in that stage yet."

"But he held your hand?"

"U-huh." Nikki had a far-away look on her face. "We had never done that before. I've always been afraid."

"And you're not anymore?"

"I don't know, Taz." The smile on Nikki's eyes disappeared. "I don't know."

"Nikki…" Taz asked slowly, carefully. "Are you in love?"

Nikki's face went pale. Taz didn't have to hear her say anything to know the answer, though. It was written all over her friend's face.

"Well, I am so happy for you." She gave Nikki a quick hug.

"So what about you and Joe?"

"What about me and Joe?"

Nikki scoffed. "You guys seem to be spending a lot of time together."

"Oh, please, I don't wanna expect anything."

"So you do feel something about him?" Nikki's eyes grew wide as though the idea of Taz liking Joe was something new.

"You don't know?"

"Uh, I had a feeling there was something there, but you never really talked about it… well, until now. Oh my God! So you like Joe?"

"Shhhh!"

"Oh, my God. Oh-my-God." It appeared that Nikki was having a hard time digesting the whole thing.

"What? You mean you really didn't know?"

"No, it's not that."

"Then what?"

Nikki hesitated. "Because he said he liked you first."

"He did not."

"You don't believe me?" Nikki smiled like she knew all the secrets in the world. "Joe hasn't gone out on a date since his last girlfriend left him, Taz. And that was like eons ago."

"So? He hasn't asked me on a date."

"So? This is it. This is his way of 'going out on a date' with a girl, 'coz he's been at the restaurant too much to find it romantic anymore."

Taz wanted to believe Nikki, she really did. But how? "But a room full of his male friends and his sister and his daughter is?"

"Well, Joe's weird like that. He has a different definition for romantic, trust me."

"Don't do this to me, Nikki."

"Taz, it's been four years since I've seen and heard my brother constantly talk about a girl. This is it, you're it."

Taz shook her head, confused. "I'm what?"

Nikki looked sad for a second. "When Hazel left Joe four years ago, he was the loneliest man on earth. Trust me, I know, I was there. And Belles was only a year old, then, so it was hard for Joe to move on from his break-up and put his life back together for his daughter all at the same time. Every night, he cried himself to sleep and I cried with him. And you know what? He did put his life back together, and he is doing a good job as a dad now, but he has never, ever, been in a relationship since."

Taz didn't want to get emotional but she couldn't help it; she felt liquid stuff forming in her eyes. "So?"

"So my brother might be taking a different approach on you but Taz, believe me when I say you're the first girl that has ever been in his life since that bitch broke his heart."

"Wow."

"Yeah, I know. So he might go off a little shy, inviting you to dinner with everyone around, but that is him sending the signs, Taz. And I don't wanna spoil it for him, but knowing that you feel the same way, I don't think there's any harm, is there?"

"Why did she leave him?" Taz simply had to ask, because she found it impossible to comprehend that anyone in their right mind would leave Joe.

Nikki sighed like it wasn't the road she'd wanna go back again. "Hazel wasn't the ideal girlfriend, I guess one would say. As soon as her parents found out that she was pregnant with Joe's baby, World War III happened. They dragged her to France a year after Belles was born. So it might seem like she was abandoning her own daughter and her boyfriend who had actually been planning on proposing to her. I actually even helped pick out the engagement ring. And she just left, with a note, saying 'I'll come back.' It's been four years and she hasn't come back. Now she has a daughter who doesn't even know her." Nikki paused, and it looked like the pain was coming back, "Joe did love her. Even after what she did, he never said one bad thing about her. He just suffered and went through all the pain without pointing the blame at anyone but himself."

Taz found her tongue incapacitated all of a sudden. Never could a person ever think that someone as cheerful and exuberant as Joe had suffered from a horribly painful past. And it was only four years go, but Taz could find no trace of grief in Joe's all-too-optimistic smile.

"But come on, it's already water under the bridge." Nikki tried to cheer up the mood with a bubbly tone in her voice. "Joe's moved on, and really I'm glad he's starting to get warmed up to someone now."

Taz blushed and hoped to God Nikki was right.

"So why don't we go downstairs now 'coz I think we've been up here for too long."

"Yeah, I don't want Chris stirring up some theories."

Nikki laughed. "After you."

When they got downstairs, it seemed like dinner was ready, but not really, because the boys were having a bit of a conference at the dining table. "Hey, Taz, Punkee was just talking about you!" Rynan cheered.

"I was not!" Joe protested, all too defensively.

"Yes, you were." Phi interjected. "We asked you who you'd want to be stuck in a deserted island with and I think it was pretty clear that your answer was Taz."

"I was talking about the Devil!" Taz couldn't help but be amused at the redness in Joe's face. "I mean, you know how much I love him."

The boys bombarded him with a collective 'yeah, right…' before everyone started moving their asses and helping set the table. It actually took more time to prepare the table than to prepare the actual meal, because what on earth did you expect from six, if you exclude Joe, grown men working in a kitchen in their disorganized, clueless ways? As fate would have it, Taz and Nikki were exempted from any form of work, because like Chris said, "Let the gentlemen shed the sweat." So obviously, as a result, they waited for about half-an-hour before someone actually did it right. And Taz couldn't remember whether it was Phi or Kevin.

"What about you, Phil?" Ben asked randomly in the middle of dinner.

"What about me?" Phil asked, reaching out for the gravy boat.

"Among all the people here in this room right now, including our precious little Isabelle, who'd you wanna be stuck in a deserted island with?"

"Except for Phi, of course, 'coz we all know he's your sweetheart." Kevin butted in.

Phi did a high-five with Phil. "I love you, man."

"And well, you can't say Taz, either, 'coz she's taken." Rynan said, winking at Joe and whispering "I got your back, man." into his ear, and well, into everyone who had an ear. Joe elbowed him hard at the ribs. "Ow." Rynan whined.

Taz's eyes shifted to the hubbub while her hand wiped off the mashed potatoes leaving a mess on Isabelle's face.

"So, which is it, Phil?" Chris asked.

"Yeah, Phil, which is it?" Taz joined in the fun, too, getting a funny glare from Nikki.

Everyone stopped eating for a while and diverted their attention to a blushing Phil.

"I don't know why you're doing this to me."

"Okay, you want to be fair?" Rynan asked. "Don't worry; after this, we all get to be asked the same question. For now, answer yours."

Phil sighed and put his knife and fork down. "Well, if I really have to answer that silly question, I'd um, I'd have to say Nikki."

Everyone turned their heads to a blushing Nikki now. "What?" She asked, drinking a glass of water agitatedly.

"Why?"

"Oh, come on, Ben. You didn't ask Joe why he chose Taz. He just did." Phil complained.

"Well, we'll ask him later about it." Ben said. "Now, you, on the other hand…"

"You wanna hear the truth?" Phil cleared his throat. "I choose Nikki because everyone else has a defected mind."

"Punkee, Phil just called your girl Taz defected."

"Shut up, Rynan." Joe rolled his eyes, chuckling.

"Except, of course, the two adorable ladies here…" Phil gestured to Taz and Isabelle. "And well, my sweetheart Phi."

"Aww, man, I love you." Phi cooed, laying his head on Phil's shoulder for second and pulling it up again.

"I love you, too." Phil said. "So, there you have it. Nikki is my answer because I can't stand seeing y'all's ugly faces for more than a minute and Joe, don't kill me yet, but I think Nikki's a piece of something to look at."

"That's it? You'd rather be with Nikki in a middle of nowhere, than us – your buddies since preschool?" Ben protested with playful indignation, challenging him. "There must be some special reason, because truly this hurts. Right, guys?"

Phil shook his head at the collected nods that followed. "Alright, fine. If you're so driven to harass me tonight, then I'm going to give you the satisfaction." He looked like he was choosing the right words for whatever it was he was about to share. "I think Nikki's an ideal companion in rough times, such as getting stuck in a deserted island, because…" pause, "I imagine her being a girl who is not prone to panicking. I imagine her…" another pause, "telling people to relax and to take a deep breath and think of a way to get out of there, as opposed to screaming helplessly like it's the end of the world. I imagine Nikki as a real calm, efficient, strong woman who will be there with me fighting through the end."

"Well, we can do that!" Chris complained. "We can stick with you through a rainstorm, can't we, guys?"

"But she's hot, Chris, that's the difference." Phil explained it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Taz caught Nikki blushing in silence, with a tiny curve in her lips. She could just imagine Nikki's heart rate at this point.

"Right. We had to hear all that sentimental crap from you, and in the end, it all sums up to the fact that Joe's got a hot sister?" Rynan scoffed, "Thank you so much, Phil. Way to go on being a classic example of the modern jerk."

"What? I'm just being honest!" Phil shrugged, giggling at the corn bits being thrown at him. "Nikki's a fine woman, and all of you are just men with ugly heads. And I mean, both heads."

The guys burst into hysterics, and Taz simply sat there and watched them roll in their seats. She saw how Phil and Nikki shared one, brief private eye-contact in the middle of the chaotic laughter, and turned to giggle with the crowd and to a Joe who was pretending to transform into The Hulk. The dinner went on, the stupid 'deserted island' question still alive, and others giving the randomnest and funniest answers to it, (she remembered Chris answering 'President Bush, so we can put our manly skills to the test and see who really deserves to be stealing secretly from the United States of America') and Taz couldn't quit stealing glances at Joe, whose eyes had already been on her. This made Taz blush into the next century.

Joe's new French 'recipe', whose name Taz couldn't really remember, came halfway through dinner, and upon having several tastes, Rynan had the cheek to say, "Marry me, Joe.", and a quiet "I can kiss you right now, man" from Phil got everyone laughing.

After dinner, everyone retired to the living room, the fire emanating from the furnace keeping the room warm and cozy, just comfortable enough to keep everyone reveling in their peaceful thoughts. The boys had a couple of sincere chats, the usual crazy hype dying down to a quiet, heartfelt conversation. When Joe suggested wine, everyone broke out into singing 'It's Raining Men' for some reason Taz wasn't adequately informed about. Must be an inside joke. Taz found it funny to witness a room full of drunken guys, mellow and drowsy, try to slur words out of their mouth, secrets rolling off their tongue so easily. At one point, Phi began going into a dramatic monologue of how quickly time flies and how people should start cherishing every moment that comes.

"I'm thankful I have you guys… I love y'all…" He gibbered in a drowsy, lazy tangle of words, reaching out and placing a loving hand on Rynan's face, who slapped it away immediately. Then out of nowhere, Phil came in and said, "It's been a while since I got laid. I miss it. I think my virginity's growing back", a few lonely murmurs of agreement from Joe, Ben, Rynan and Chris followed. They were the single ones out of the lot, well, except Rynan.

"What are you talking about, Rynan? You have a Hayge to go home to in cold, stormy nights." Chris whined miserably. "Kev has his Cher, Phi has his Carlene…. And us?" he gestured among Joe, Phil and Ben, "what do we have?"

"Full stomachs…" Ben sing-songed, brushing his tummy under his shirt. After a moment of two, he let out a monster burp for effect that got everyone wincing.

"If there would just be someone who can fill up my craving right now..." Phil gave Phi a meaningful look and waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Everyone laughed when Phi leaned away with a horrified expression and said "Well, hell, don't look at me, dude."

Around ten o'clock, with Isabelle already tucked in bed, and as three empty bottles of wine scattered on the floor, people finally decided it was time to go home, in a loveless home, Chris called it. (He still hadn't recovered from the all the drama) and sluggishly got to their feet one by one. Nikki yawned and murmured something that sounded like "good night, er-one" and wobbled her way up the stairs. Joe leaned in into Taz's ears and spoke in a hushed voice, "Do you want me to walk you home?"

There was no possible way Taz could refuse. She hoped her nod didn't appear too desperate and eager.

Joe held her hand and pulled her gently up from the couch, assisting her to her feet in all her tipsiness. She balanced on her feet and blushed when Joe didn't let go of her hand. They walked behind Kevin, finding that a right moment to look at each other with sticky eyes, silly smiles plastered on their faces. Joe looked away and ducked his head down like a silly 14-year-old.

As Joe and Taz lingered outside the gate, waiting for the others to get settled in their cars, Rynan waved, climbing in the driver's seat of his silver Volvo, Chris and Ben occupying the backseats. "Aight, you two, have a good night."

"Where's my kiss, Joe?" Phi asked somewhere from the back, where another car stood, a black Porsche, _Phil's_ Porsche, and Joe laughed and buried his hands inside his pockets cockily. "Maybe next time, Sparky."

"Aight, good night again. Take care of our Joe, Taz."

"I will." Taz chuckled. "Night, fellas."

"And Joe, don't do anything stupid, I got my eyes on you."

"I think it'd be better if _you_ had your eyes on the road, Rynan." Joe advised, rolling his eyes.

Two engines ignited at the same time, and with an almost invisible cloud of smoke, they zoomed and disappeared into the night.

"Let's go?" Joe asked.

So the two of them marched along the dark Del Paso street, guided only by the street lamps lined at the side of the road.

"Thanks for inviting me to dinner; I've never had a more delightful meal in a long time." Taz said after a moment of silence.

"Don't mention it. I love having you around." Joe sounded like he'd been itching to say it all night.

Taz blushed furiously. "You do, huh?"

"Yeah." His tone of voice told her that he was serious. "Which is kinda weird."

"Why weird?"

"It's just…" Joe kept his eyes on the ground, "I barely know you. Where you come from, what kind of music you wanna listen to, and what food you like to eat. You know, that kinda stuff."

"Well…" Taz began, "I am from New York, my roots come all the way from the Philippines, just like you. I love R 'n B, and Michael Jackson's sort of like my hero. And… I don't have any particular favorite when it comes to food – I love all sorts." Taz paused to laugh for a bit, "I love to cook, too. Just like you."

"Alright." Joe said, shrugging. "Why did you leave New York?"

"So what, is this like an interview now?"

"Just answer my question. You get to ask one, too." Joe explained. "So, tell me, why did you leave New York?"

"Well, I don't know. I guess I want to find something, or somehow change a part of my life. It's like a search for a new life, you know. I don't know. I can't really explain it in words." Taz felt embarrassed at her inarticulateness.

"I know what you mean." Joe said in a small voice. "I knew someone who wanted a new life herself. So she just… upped and left… Left me."

"Joe, are you talking about…?" Taz couldn't say it. She knew exactly what he was talking about.

"But it was a long time ago. I'm living a great life now… with my daughter, with Nikki, with my friends."

"You and the guys seem really tight."

"Yeah, we go way back. Like so, so way back." Joe said reminiscently. "Me and the guys have been dancing together our whole lives. It's great having someone to share your passion with."

"Why did you choose culinary arts over the musicals, then? If you love dancing so much."

Joe shrugged. "In case you haven't noticed, lady, I am a connoisseur when it comes to cooking. People love what these babies can do." He bragged, putting up and twirling his fingers proudly.

Taz laughed, rolling her eyes, and brushed them aside. "I know, I know. But what about dancing? Wouldn't you have been happier if you lived your life in a dance studio as opposed to working in a restaurant?"

"With my weekly salary at La Provence? Hell no!" He joked; when he caught the look on Taz's face, he instantly sobered up. "Well, it would've been nice if there was some assurance in the dance industry. But there isn't. And nowadays, you can't afford not be practical. I love being a chef, and being a dancer on the side. I love doing what I do now. I can inject dancing here and there, and that's good enough for me."

"Wow, what a fulfilled man you are, Joe."

"Just a little bit." He held his thumb and his pointer a few centimeters apart.

"Must be nice to be your wife." Taz regretted it as soon as it left her mouth.

"What, you wanna apply?" Joe asked, bowing to get a closer look at her blushing face. "See flyers and posters for more details and info."

Another remarkable thing about this guy was that he knew how to make one lady feel comfortable even in the awkwardest of moments. Taz imagined Joe being a guy who'd still act nice around her even in a bad hair day.

Then Taz remembered something. "So, I got another one for you."

"Shoot."

"What's with the Tazmanian Devil addiction?"

Joe laughed. "I don't know. I just love him and his dangerous ways. Something about his mischief reminds me of my own childhood. I was a hardcase like you wouldn't believe."

"Oh… I would believe."

"Hahaha."

Suddenly it got quiet. Taz was looking into a strange distance, and Joe hummed enchanting, windy words into the silence.

"What are you thinking?" He finally asked.

"I'm thinking I'm thankful."

"Thankful?" Joe's voice was soft. "For what?"

Taz took a deep breath as soon as the wave of courage hit her. "I'm thankful I met you guys." You, especially. "I knew there was some sort of reason why I made the decision of leaving New York and being here. A part of my subconscious was telling me that something better was waiting for me outside my own little cramped world. And it was you. I know that now."

"Wow, that's some messed-up drama right there."

Taz rolled her eyes. "I'm serious, Joe. I am glad I came here."

She was sure that Joe knew she was serious. The warmth in his smile said it all.

"You know what I am glad about? I am glad that I picked up Belles from Gracie's house on that fortunate afternoon two weeks ago."

Taz was glad about that, too. So, so glad.

"I mean, of course, if you exclude the part where you came at me with the knife and cut…"

"Of course, of course."

Taz was disappointed to find Gracie's house already as they made a wide turn to the left. She wanted to stay with Joe tonight… and forever. Mmph. Cheesy. "Well, I guess that's me." They stopped in front of the gate, and she made no move inside.

Joe pursed his lips and hid his arms behind him. Was he being a gentleman now? "I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

"I definitely will." Okay, that seemed too obvious. "Good night, Joe." Even saying it pained her.

Joe nodded cordially, and leaned in to give her cheek a light peck. Taz gasped as her knees buckled in the delicate sensation.

"I really enjoyed tonight." The dish was excellent. The boys were funny. Joe was looking dashing in his white polo. All in all, it was a night Taz wouldn't trade for the world.

"Me, too. You know, usually, I don't have anyone over to the house except friends and family."

"Wow. I must be special." Taz said, teasing.

"You sure are." Joe returned it with a coy smile of his own and turned to leave, hands in his pocket. "Ooh, by the way, I love your shirt. Do they come in men's sizes?"

Taz laughed and ached to beg Joe to stay with her through the night. "Sleep well, Joe."

Joe gave her one last heartfelt smile before turning and walking away at last. Taz had the most difficult time sleeping that night.

*****916143

The next few days came on pretty quickly for Taz. But they were the best days of her life. Whenever she and Nikki were free, they'd watch Jabbawockeez – yes, that was the name of Joe's dance crew – rehearse at Playback. The first time Taz witnessed them dance, she was blown away. She heard from Nikki that they were good, but not that good. It was even her first time to see an actual person do a headspin, and thanks to Rynan, she got to live out one of her lifelong dreams. But when they put on the white masks and the white gloves, that's where the eerie, majestic Jabbawockeez vibe would start to overwhelm her. Damn it, damn it all to hell; she was no dance expert, but they were, hands down, the best dancers she had ever seen in her life – no bias whatsoever. It was like watching magic harmonized perfectly with the beat of the music. Vegas day was fast approaching so the boys rehearsed more often than they usually did, so Taz was having the Jabba-experience of her life. There was a matter of stipulation, though, before they'd let her in the studio – yes, you guessed it right, her home-made cookies. It appeared that they were demanding her to bring those sweets every time she stopped by. And she really didn't have any problem with that. She loved feeding an army.

"I wonder what would happen if you and Punkee got married." Rynan mentioned one time after an afternoon-long practice. "Your babies should be lucky to have you as their parents, considering all the cookies and croissants waiting at their disposal. They should also be fat, too."

Joe pretended to strangle him while sharing an intimate laugh with Taz. She really had no clear view as to where they were now, but the comfortableness of being teased together was becoming a regular thing. She wouldn't lie and say there wasn't anything there. Because there was. Even the boys could sense it. Taz was just waiting for him to make the first move.

There was still tension between Nikki and Phil, though. They still couldn't be left in the same room without Nikki nervously fidgeting with anything that came in contact with her hand. There was a time when Nikki and Taz were left in the studio alone as the guys were somewhere else when Nikki got to her dancing shoes and danced solo to the mellow song playing on the stereo. She was a great dancer, too, and Taz was not surprised anymore considering Nikki lived her formative and impressionable years with Joe and his friends. It was when Phil came in from the back, and paused abruptly behind the door where Nikki could not see her, that Taz knew for sure Phil had a thing for Nikki, too. Like a really, deep, strong thing. She watched quietly as Phil spied on Nikki with amazed eyes, not the ones people got to see often, immersed completely in an unaware Nikki, too immersed that he didn't notice Taz was spying on him, too.

Taz was hoping Nikki would get past her doubts and apprehensions, and start opening her mind to the possibility of Phil kissing her sometime in the near future, seeing as Taz always got that look of craving on his face every time she caught him looking at Nikki through hooded eyes. When Taz told Nikki about this, she went nuts.

"No effing way."

"It's true, Nik. Anyone with normally-functioning eyes could tell that Phil wants to eat you up like a crème pompey. Which, I'm surprised, Joe's not commenting about."

"Crème what? Ugh, whatever. And oh, not commenting? Taz, it's that idiot's fifty-seventh time this morning to tell me 'something is going on with you and Phil, I can feel it.'"

"Don't call him an idiot."

"Oh, I almost forgot that he's your boyfriend now." Nikki said sarcastically. "Oh, wait, he's not!"

Taz sighed.

"When are _you_ gonna make a move? You guys seem to be taking it sloooooow…"

"Yeah, okay, we're both slow. But at least I'm not a coward." Taz said defensively.

"Hey, I'm not a coward. I'm just…"

"A wuss?"

"That's not fair."

Taz chuckled, "Nikki, they'll be leaving in a few weeks. Please tell him how you feel before it's too late."

"I can't." Nikki curled up miserably on the couch. "I don't know how to."

A nappy Isabelle crawled into Taz's folded legs then and the subject was closed.

Taz didn't realize she had fallen asleep on Nikki with Isabelle in her arms until she opened her eyes to a darkened living room. It was a quiet night, and all she could only hear is the faint sound coming form the TV. Isabelle remained soundly asleep as Taz slowly and cautiously pried out her left arm from being buried under Belle's little body. Watching the little girl in her calm, peaceful slumber, Taz couldn't help her lips curving into a smile; she wanted to take an invisible camera and capture that priceless moment. This was one of the reasons why the world was still a beautiful place to live in – somehow it reminded her so much of Joe; Joe and his undaunting presence. After staring for too long, Taz finally reached out and caressed Belle's velvety cheek with the back of her hand, the softness tingling her fingers. Somebody cleared a throat, and sure enough, Taz turned around to see a smiling Joe behind her.

"Morning, sleepyhead." He chuckled. "Oh, wait, I see no daylight outside my window."

"What time is it?" Taz looked at Joe's free hand and ached to take it and pull him down to the sofa with her.

"A quarter past six."

"Come here, Joe." Finally, a sign that Taz actually had real guts; she had to remind herself to boast it to Nikki tomorrow. Joe's initial response only showed that he was gonna respond to it in his own comedic way, AGAIN.

"Alright, fine, woman. I'll go down there in that heap of human bodies if I have to…" Taz began to laugh… "You don't have to beg, you know."

"I didn't beg; I just asked once."

"You could beg, you know." Joe feigned a pout and crossed his arms, Taz drooling for, again, those lean manly bulges folding together perfectly.

"Joe, seriously, come here." It didn't sound like a request anymore.

A lazy smile slowly crept on Joe's lips as he ambled his way over to a desperately waiting, longing Taz. "Shouldn't you be home by now, young lady? Your parents might worry."

"Do you want me to leave?" Taz acted to stand up but Joe was quick to clasp her hand.

"Sit your cute little butt down, missy."

Taz gave out the sleazy pout and landed next to Joe, purposefully sitting so close to him that she could smell that Pour Homme cologne that she had grown so familiar with. Joe's hand brushed Isabelle's hair, and he looked at her with so much warmth and affection only he could ever give her. As she was watching it, Taz longed to take Joe's and Isabelle's foreheads and shower them with baby kisses. Seriously. "When I got home from work, you girls looked so peacefully asleep, I felt guilty waking you up."

"Where's Nikki?" Taz suddenly remembered her long-forgotten friend.

"Getting beautiful shots of the garden outside with her new camera." Joe rolled his eyes. "What a show-off." Taz knew he was only half-serious, though, letting out a little laugh.

"So what were my three most favorite girls in the world up to this afternoon?"

Taz told Joe everything that they did while he was at work. She told him about the genius Genie the dog that they met at the park, Isabelle's poop incident, that got Joe laughing so hard, "yeah, she has some deep issues with that.", she mentioned to him about a fat kid named Jimmy and how Nikki screamed, 'leave my babies alone, you pathetic insecure kid', at his face, whose reason Nikki didn't really explain all that clearly to her, and how, out of the blue, Isabelle called her Mama.

"She did?" Joe gasped.

"Yeah." Taz was the happiest mom in the world when Isabelle did that.

"She never calls anyone that. Never." This seemed to baffle Joe the most, though. "She had never even mentioned the M-word before, ever. Well, she calls Mom 'Mommy' sometimes, but never anyone else."

"Really?" Whoa, did Taz feel special right now or what? Joe was the first guy she'd ever heard the 'M-word' from, and it made her laugh.

The silence that followed got Taz a little bit worried. Joe kept his eyes glued to the floor with his hands kept to himself. Why was he not talking all of a sudden? And what was with the serious look on his face? Taz couldn't seem to recall anything that had happened for the past twenty minutes of their lives that could switch the gears from chitchat to silence. Taz was about to muster enough courage to ask, when Joe found it the perfect moment to lift his eyes to hers. Taz gulped the lump down her throat and was shocked to catch the look of raging intensity on Joe's face.

"Are you gonna be mad at me if I kissed you right now?"

Taz blinked for what felt like a lifetime before she could command the right muscles to shake her head. Because no, no, no. She most certainly wouldn't be mad if he kissed her right now. If anything, she had been yearning for nothing but just that. _It's about damn time you kiss me, Joe Larot._

Taz tried to breathe evenly, she really did, but there was that uncomfortable tug in her stomach that made it hard for breathing. And there was that moment of complete oblivion, where everything around them just seemed to stop. Joe looked at her eyes, then shifted quickly to her mouth, and then back at her eyes again, and all Taz could do was stare with nervous wanting and desperately wait for that long-anticipated touch. Joe lifted his hand to her hair, combing them through his fingers, and letting that hand rest on her cheek. Taz took a deep breath, closed her eyes and welcomed Joe's lips as they touched hers for the very first time. Here goes nothing.

Taz had never been good at kissing; she found the whole thing awkward and icky, with all the wet tongue and teeth involved. With her pathetic worth of experience, there was never a time to look back and say 'that some good kiss right there.' This kiss, though, was an exemption to any rule ever written in Taz's book. When she felt the fullness of Joe's mouth sliding perfectly into hers at the exact angle, at the exact time, Taz honestly wanted to cry. The gentleness in Joe's parted lips, the firmness of his hand on her face, the sexy sound coming deep from his throat, were sending all the message in the world that Taz had yearned to hear for so long. Coming alive and ignited beyond anything imaginable, she placed her hand firmly on Joe's neck, and opened her mouth to full capacity, kissing and taking his mouth in any way, in any depth, in any angle that she needed to. She didn't care anymore what was too obscene or what was not. Her desire was too strong to even give her a sense of what was happening.

And then Joe broke the kiss, both of them gulping for air. Taz was feeling lightheaded from lack of oxygen, and her lips felt swollen and used. And they both blinked. Hard.

"Wow." Joe said breathlessly, absentmindedly feeling his red lips.

"Wow." Taz echoed.

"What was that?" He asked, his voice almost a whisper.

"I don't know."

"It was like an explosion."

"I agree." was all Taz could say.

Joe and Taz stared at each other for as long as time allowed them as though searching for answers. Taz could hear the heavy pounding of her heart and grasped Joe's hand and placed it over her chest to let him feel her wild heartbeat, to let him know how he was making her feel. Joe seemed to be listening, and smiled. A smile that let Taz know everything didn't just feel good, but it also felt right.

Something stirred in a humble, quiet sound which broke the solemn atmosphere and both heads turned to a waking Isabelle, whose long, endless eyelashes fluttered. Then two big brown eyes opened. "Daddy?"

"Hey, sweetheart…" Joe dragged his body along the couch to Isabelle was still lethargic from the long nap. "Did you have a good sleep?"

She nodded her head, getting up and crawling into Joe's legs. "Mama and I went to the park today."

There went the M-word, Taz's heart almost melted at the spot. Joe had a secret smile and asked, "Did you now? I want to hear ALL about it."

As Isabelle began relaying their afternoon experience in her own adorable, Isabelle kind of way, with all the hand gestures and animated facial expressions involved, Taz felt Joe's hand creep slowly over to hers, their fingers intertwining delicately with each other. She didn't have to see the look on his face to know he felt the same euphoria that she was feeling. Taz smiled contentedly and rested her head on Joe's shoulder, as they listened to Isabelle's bedtime story. It felt like she had just won the lottery. No, scratch that, it felt so much better than winning the lottery. It felt like winning the lottery, and… finding a family. A one, happy cookie-baking, French food-cooking family.

Taz spent a lot of time at the Larot's now. And this time she didn't have to pretend that she was ogling Joe every time she had the urge to, which seemed to happen a lot. When she told Nikki the first time, she refused to believe it.

"There is no way that you and him, that you and my brother…"

Taz had simply given her a blissful, far-away smile and she understood. "No effing way."

And to give concrete evidence, Joe leaned in and gave Taz a deep, knee-weakening bedroom kiss that got Nikki stupefied on the spot. Well, at least now she believed it.

When Joe bragged about it later to the guys, they gave him brotherly punches on the arm, a couple of high-fives here and there, and that was it. Boys do react less dramatically than women, Taz realized. They did react a little more dramatically than necessary, however, when Joe jumped her and pretended to rape her over the pool bench. Even if sometimes the catcalls were embarrassing, Taz couldn't deny that it felt insanely good to be kissed senseless by Joe in front of his friends – it could only mean he was proud of her, he was proud of "them." Call her crazy but she thought it was romantic.

They were hanging by the pool when Nikki sat beside her conspicuously, like she had something important to say. "Okay, lady, you won."

"I know." Taz answered her with an arrogant, gloating smile, sipping from her Pina Colada. "Jealous?"

Nikki scoffed, only too defensively. "Oh, please. I'm not as half jealous about your little affair with my brother as I am with Brangelina."

"I feel too good to take offense from that."

"Of course you do. My brother's all over you, you're all over him. It's like watching _When Harry Met Sally_ in real life. Only sappier." Nikki explained, watching the boys only in their bathing shorts playing volleyball in the pool.

"Joe and I are not sappy." Taz defended.

"Yeah, right." Nikki dismissed her absentmindedly whose attention seemed to have been diverted then.

Taz smiled knowingly. "If only looks could burn, Phil would be blazing in fire by now."

"What?" She wanted to laugh and point at the strong blush on Nikki's guilty face.

"Go ahead and deny it, Nikki. Go ahead and say 'I don't know what you're talking about.' The only thing that you're cheating is yourself."

"Hey, you're supposed to be my friend." Nikki whined, eyes still on Phil, who was half-naked on the pool and frigging hot, if Taz was to be perfectly honest.

"I am you friend. That's why it is my job to remind you that life is short and the clock is ticking."

"Huh?"

"Whatever." Taz sighed, observing and finally noticing the eyecandies soaking in the water, under the heat of the scorching sun, all for her viewing pleasure to enjoy. "God, they're hot aren't they?"

Nikki laughed. "You're disgusting."

"What? I'm just keeping it real, homey." Taz was laughing herself.

"You just started going out with my brother; don't you think it would be too treacherous to think about sleeping with one of his friends that soon?" Nikki reasoned diligently, only half-serious, until she thought of an idea. "Okay, so granted you're not dating my brother, who among his friends would be the next likely guy you'd fall for?"

"Mmm." Taz had a time to think about her answer. Well, if truth be told, she had an instant attraction to Phil, because well, he was hot, and he had that solid, unwavering swagger about him. His smile was a killer, too. But seeing Rynan now, out of his top, got Taz thinking twice. Rynan was the buffest guy among the lot – he had ripples of muscles in his arms, in his chest that extended perfectly down his stomach. And if that tattoo on his arm wasn't sexy, Taz didn't know what was. She was a sucker for his honey-brown, almond-shaped eyes, too. Next was Phi, who was now giggling at a joke which was probably too cheesy to pass for funny. Phi had the face of a good-hearted guy and a body of a dancer: long, lean, strong. And his pleasant aura was too adorable to miss. If he didn't dance, you'd think he was a nerd; an incredibly hot nerd, but still, nerd. Ben was the quiet type. When Taz was around, he barely spoke, unlike the others. Joe explained to her, though, that that's just how Ben was around new faces. Ben was the smart, easy-going, cool kinda guy that had a shot at being a model if given the opportunity. And ooh, the deep, sexy bedroom voice was a panty-dropper, for real. That left Chris and Kevin. Taz couldn't find anything sexually-enticing about these two since they simply gave friendly, warm vibes around her. So the battle was among Phil, Rynan, Phi and Ben. So who's it gonna be?

"So, who's it gonna be?" Nikki asked her for the second time, shaking Taz off from her trance.

"I don't know. Would you kill me I said 'Phil'?"

Nikki rolled her eyes deliberately.

"I'll take that as a yes." Taz said before Nikki could protest. "Um, I can't decide. They're all hot. This is hard."

"What's hard?" Rynan broke their privacy, strutting in to steal Nikki's lemon drink from her hand, getting a 'hey!" from her. "This?" He asked, doing a Mr. Universe pose and displaying all the man-bulges that he had, which were a lot.

"No, she can't decide who's the hottest among you guys. Well, excluding Joe, of course."

It seemed like Phil heard Nikki, too. "What's so hard to decide, girl? The answer is at your face." He plopped himself on the bench, wiping himself with Nikki's towel. "Why do you keep getting my stuff?" Nikki's whining came unnoticed as she disappeared to the background. It wasn't long before all of the guys emerged out of the water, getting refreshment on the benchside table.

Taz waited patiently for Joe to notice her in her mini-shorts. "Hey, stranger." He winked at her, walking over with a little bit of satisfied confidence.

"Come here. Let me dry you off." Taz pulled him down beside her, grabbing his Tazmanian Devil towel and wrapping it around his wet, bare skin. She had to bite her lip to keep herself from leaning in and sniffing. "You look handsome." She said quietly, whispering closely to his ear to prevent any eavesdropping from the others.

"I do?" He whispered back, meeting her eyes. "Were you staring at me this whole time? I feel so violated."

"Tease."

Joe smiled and put his lips close to hers, barely touching, just nuzzling against each other. He was breathing into her mouth and Taz wanted to sail away and fly to heaven.

"Kiss me." She gibbered under her breath.

So they kissed… passionately, lost in the moment, caring little to none if the others were throwing bits of marshmallows their way. Chris was saying "Get a room, you two!" when they pulled apart. Taz and Joe shared a secret smile and she fired back at them with a "Jealous, much?"

They all dismissed it with eyerolls and headshakes of their own.

When they got inside to have lunch (after waiting too long), there was a riot of nine people (actually, just seven guys making it – actually five, because Ben and Phi were mostly reserved) present in the kitchen. The riot that Taz had become so familiar with and grown to love. Nikki walked in the kitchen self-unconsciously, in just a towel and all chaos stopped in the world when she opened the refrigerator and bent over to get a bottle of water. Nikki turned around to find six men gaping at her, Phil, in particular, and blushed. Joe gaped at her, too, if only for different reasons. "Get back to your room and get dressed, young lady." He ordered her, only half-kidding, getting collective groans of disappointment from the other men. "What?" Joe looked at them one by one. "You were staring at my sister's… ass. I know I should do something about it."

Taz noticed the look of amusement on Nikki's face as she climbed back the stairs.

"In my defense, I was not staring at her ass." Rynan denied dramatically. "I was simply admiring her legs. They're so tanned. Where does she get her tanning sessions? Her legs are so nicely bronzed."

"And you're so gay." Phil joked, gaining a punch from Rynan. "Ow."

"If I knew better, Phil, I'd say…" Rynan started, Chris, Phi, Kevin and Ben curiously listening in, and paused.

"What? You'd say what?" Phil crossed his arms confidently.

After much deliberation, Rynan sighed. "Nah, I'll be a good friend to you today."

"Nikki's grown a lot." Chris commented.

Joe rolled his eyes. "And you wouldn't notice that if she wasn't wearing a mere towel, would you, Chris?"

"Hey, dude, I'm just saying." Chris put his hands up.

"I miss Isabelle." Taz pouted as she went to stand next to Joe against the counter, suddenly remembering the little one who was vacationing at Joe's parents at the moment.

"Taz, I've been with her for almost everyday of my life, and yes, pathetically enough, a couple days of separation is still not easy for me to go through." Joe dramatized, laying his head on her shoulder, which was a little uncomfortable since he was a couple of inches taller than she was.

Taz brushed his fuzz of hair. "Aww, can't blame you, sweetie." Huh, look how naturally "sweetie" just rolled off her tongue.

"Well, it sure is great to have you around now, Taz. Puts me out of my misery." Joe cooed, wrapping one arm snugly around her waist.

Taz blushed and gave his forehead a quick kiss.

It was around one o'clock in the afternoon when Joe finished making a gourmet meal for them and Nikki got back downstairs, who was, thank God, in an Abercrombie and Fitch jumper now. When she took the chair right across Phil's, Rynan and Kevin began crowding around Phil, ready to carry out an evil scheme, and sang, "…Sitting there across the room, she don't got a lot to say but there's something about her." Rynan and Kevin jingled while going back and forth between teasing Phil and pointing theatrically to Nikki, who was half-blushing, half-smiling at the pair of them.

Phil stuck his head down, embarrassed beyond belief. He was mumbling something like "I thought you were gonna be a good friend to me today."

"And you don't know why but you're dying to try, you wanna kiss the girl." Rynan finished, in, to Taz's surprise, a very melodic voice, the others catching on and joining in.

"Shalalalalala, my, oh, my -"

"That's enough, dude." Ben interrupted, leaving Rynan cut off to silence.

"So, shall we eat now?" Nikki asked after a moment or two. "I'm freaking starving."

They were in the process of passing the food around when Ben, out of nowhere, asked "But you do wanna kiss the girl, don't you, Phil?

"If you don't shut up," Phil threatened in his serious voice, "it's you that I'm gonna kiss."

Ben froze and everyone ended up laughing and teasing him.

Nikki found it most weird to witness Joe and Taz together now that they were an official couple. It was probably because it had been such a while since she last saw her brother become affectionate with another woman except with his daughter and well, their mother. Nikki had waited for this day to finally come but now that it was happening, she wished things would go back to the way they were so she could've been given a little bit more time to prepare herself for what was about to come. Because she certainly wasn't ready for this. Everyday it was like Joe-and-Taz Romance day. There was never a time that you'd walk in on them and not be a witness of them holding hands or cuddling, or giggling or whispering sweet nothings into each other's ears, that were, frankly, one the most gag-provoking things in the world; it might not be the worst, but it could definitely pass for top five.

The boys were experiencing the same kind of dilemma, too. Spending time with Joe for the Vegas show rehearsals, they also had to spend time with Taz. Because as of now, being with Joe also meant being with Taz. Those two inseparable twins got everyone baffled, well… considering Joe's unspeakable past. They just weren't used to the idea that Joe was out there in the world of romance and trying the whole mess out again.

But all things considered, everyone was happy for them. Others happier than some: like Rynan, for example, who had repeatedly claimed that it was his match-making powers that brought Joe and Taz together. All he got were eyerolls from them every time, though. And of course, Isabelle wasn't complaining, either. Because it seemed now like she had a daddy… and a mommy. Huh. Worked for the best, after all. And Taz didn't seem like the girl to break Joe's heart.

Weirdly enough, though, the L-word hadn't been exchanged yet. And this Nikki perfectly understood.

"Please don't tell me you'll be feeding each other now." Phil commented one morning as they all got down for breakfast. "Please, in the name of all that's holy, please."

Joe laughed, looking up from his plate, and kissed Phil's forehead. "Don't worry, Phil, I'm still yours for the night."

"Seriously, Punkee, don't change the point of discussion by being incredibly disgusting."

"Alright, fine. We won't be feeding each other anything." Taz said. "You happy now, Phil?"  
"No, not really."

This time Nikki laughed.

"What are you laughing at?" Joe threatened.

"Nothing. Just had the image of you and Taz brushing each other's hair and feeding grapes to each other like baby monkeys."

"Hey…" Joe pointed his fork at her, "First of all, I don't have hair. Second of all, we're too beautiful to be monkeys."

"Wait… You haven't crossed out the 'feeding each other grapes' part, does that mean there's still a possibility of that happening?"

"Well, you see, Phil…" Joe began…

"Do it on your own time."

Joe smirked with a naughty lop-sided grin, something that Joe put on only when he was feeling frisky. "Trust me, when we're on our own, feeding each other grapes is not all there is to do."

Nikki grimaced, closed her eyes, and wished she hadn't heard that. "Please…" She moaned.

Taz giggled helplessly and nudged Joe in the ribs. Obviously, Taz was enjoying this more than anyone else.

"Alright, alright, there will be no brushing of hair, no feeding of grapes whatsoever…" Taz sounded resigned, "now can we please drop the subject?"

"Yes, ma'am." Phil said.

"Yeah, and no PDA, please when we're trying to eat and get through a decent meal…" Nikki braved to say as Joe and Taz were about to nuzzle each other's noses.

Joe had the willpower to call it off and give Nikki a knowing look. "And if I knew better, Nikki, I'd say you're jealous."

Nikki almost choked on her drink. "Jealous? Jealous of what? I'm not jealous. Why would I be jealous?"

"Say 'jealous' one more time and you'll win a trip to Africa." Taz commented in the background, chuckling.

Huh. Meanness does rub off. "Why would I be jealous, Joe? Because really, I am curious as to how you arrived to that conclusion."

Joe had a moment to chew his food before answering, "You're jealous, because unlike me and Taz, you are too much of a chicken to deal with your feelings, so you keep them swept under the rug. And I'm not even gonna pretend I'm talking to only one person here."

Nikki tensed up. Phil tensed up. Everyone was tensing up except Taz and Joe. Ungrateful bastards, Nikki thought and tried her hardest NOT to look at Phil Tayag right now. Just because Taz and Joe have professed their love and all that bullcrap to each other, didn't mean they were obligated to do the same. If it'd happen, it would happen. If not… well… well… Nikki was hoping it would happen. Phil was starting to show a different side of him now, wasn't he? Who knows what would happen next? End of the world? Seven plagues of Egypt? The return of the Scorpion King…?

To break all the tension in the air (that didn't appear to take effect on Taz and Joe at all), the doorbell rang. Nikki voiced a silent 'thank you' and said, "I'll get it.", and slid out of her chair and got away from there as fast as she could. Almost panting for breath, she opened the door and felt her jaw drop at what she saw, or rather, at whom she saw. She blinked hard for uncountable times.

No way.

No way on earth this was happening. Nikki felt like she was gonna have a heart attack, and she'd rather have that than deal with this right now. It was a dream, of course, it was just a dream… because it just wasn't possible that…

"_Bonjour,_ Nikki. Long time no see."

Nikki's throat closed up. She closed her eyes, hoping that that person would disappear if she'd open them. But it wasn't a dream – it wasn't her hallucination. It was real. It was Hazel, standing at the doorway, standing at the exact place where she had left Joe desperately calling out to her four years ago.

*******916143

So Hazel was here. And she just showed up out of nowhere. Actually, 'nowhere' meant Paris. Taz knew she had no reason to get jealous, but there was no helping it. Hazel was this sophisticated woman in her all Frenched-up glory. Well, she wasn't French, but her aura was saying otherwise. She was carrying a Louis Vouitton bag, her feet adorned with red Prada heels and a Chanel coat. I mean… she was the actual emblem of any girl's fashion ambition. Not that Taz wanted all those things; it just felt that if Hazel had those, she also might have a lot of other things on her golden plate.

And this didn't make Taz feel good at all, which was questionable in itself, because were they competing? Hell no.

Or were they?

She seemed pleasantly nice, if you leave out that fact that she was a heart-breaker. Joe hadn't introduced Taz to her as his girlfriend, and that might be the reason why she wasn't getting the Hazel daggers yet. And it did feel hellishly bad when Joe went, "This is Taz…" and left it hanging – Taz waited for the 'my girlfriend' but none came. But what did she have to worry about? She was the one who Joe had been cuddling with for the past few days, not Hazel. Hazel who had been missing in action for four years. The coldness from Joe served her just right.

Taz forced a smile as Hazel shook her hand. She did seem nice, but there was no denying that Taz hated her for choosing the good life in heavenly Paris over Joe and her daughter Isabelle and leaving Joe with a broken heart. Who would have the heart to do something as damaging as that? Something must be very wrong about her.

It was clear that Joe's cheerful mood switched into something darker. Because Taz knew it wasn't the easiest job for him dealing with this particular kind of situation, having Hazel in his home, who was being all friendly and nice like nothing ever happened. Joe managed to keep it civil, though, and even had the courtesy to invite her for lunch. Phil and Nikki had disagreeing looks on their faces, albeit controlled, like they were hell-to-the-no against it. Isabelle, on the other hand, looked like she couldn't care any less as she sat comfortably on Taz's lap, playing with Taz's fingers like she had her non-Hazel world of her own.

Taz saw the look of longing on Hazel's as she made her way over to Isabelle's side on the couch. Hazel sat down and placed a gentle hand on Isabelle's shoulder, who looked up just then too see who touched her. She gave Hazel a blank, uninterested look.

"Say hello to Hazel, Belles." Taz prodded the child.

Isabelle said a quick "Hi," in her small voice before looking away like something new caught her attention.

A look of tremendous disappointment was evident on Hazel's face no matter how hard she tried to hide it. Taz cleared her throat and managed a weak smile. "She's just shy at first meetings."

Hazel didn't even bother pretending to smile at all, and stood up to make conversation with the adults in the room again.

Joe and Hazel looked like they had a LOT of catching up to do, so she gave them space. She was Joe's girlfriend now and it would be so easy to go up there and gloat and say it to Hazel's face if she allowed her possessiveness get the best of her. But then Taz tried to look at it a better, broader perspective. Joe and Hazel had a history, a history that Taz could never take away no matter what, and Hazel held a part in Joe's heart that would always be there… and they, Taz reminded herself, had made a baby together. And even though Hazel made the wrongest decision of throwing it all away, Taz had to accept that Joe and Hazel shared a kind of bond that she couldn't even hope to share with him.

It was around lunch time that Taz felt incredibly awkward. She wasn't sure why, except for the obvious, but there was a nasty wrench at the pit of her stomach. She stared nervously at her chicken ravioli as Hazel continued making small talk with anyone was who was interested to listen. Anyone meaning Joe.

"…So finally, I got the pitch and it's official, I'm vice president of the Advertising division."

Joe smiled. "Wow, good for you, Haze. You got any plans saving the world of something?"

Hazel laughed. "Hardly. I'm leaning more into saving Paris Hilton's world, if you know what I'm saying." Taz saw how demurely she dabbed the napkin on her mouth. "So enough about me – what about you, Punk? How's work been?"

"It's been good. I'm actually working at La Provence now, and waiting patiently for my promotion."

"No way." Hazel said, amazed. "The famous French restaurant uptown? Your dream restaurant?"

Joe nodded, a small smile still playing on his lips.

"Oh, Punkee…" Taz couldn't miss the hand that Hazel placed casually on Joe's arm. "I'm so happy for you. You've always wanted to work there."

"You remember, huh?" Joe looked at her fondly.

"How can I forget? You've always been the dreamer, Punkee. Remember when you said you'd build your own restaurant and name it after me? I found it so silly that you had to kiss me to stop me laughing so hard."

Long pause, awkward silence. Taz got to her feet and said, "I'm gonna, um, get the dessert."

Taz felt a combination of jealousy and irritation. Jealous, because "Punkee" and "Haze" were gazing at each other like they were the only two people in the world, irritation, because damn! Why on earth did she even make the effort to just sit there and look helplessly at it? Now it felt like there was an invisible rope being tied around her heart.

Taz let her body drape over the counter, breathing in and out, in and out – she had to get over this childish, possessive stupidity soon. Once she felt a little better, she hauled out the huge platter of Cranberry cake out of the chiller and almost dropped it when she came face to face with a too-friendly Hazel.

"Hey." She said, taking notice of the red, wobbly gelatin-accented cake. "That looks yummy. _Qu'est-ce que c'est?_"

Taz took a little bit of French in high school so she understood that; it might've meant "what is that?", but she could be wrong. She took her chances and dug deep to find her voice. "Ah… it's Cranberry."

"Cranberry?" Hazel sounded worried. "Punkee is allergic to Cranberry."

Great. She spent hours and hours trying to perfect this complicated dessert and not a single time did Joe mention to her that he couldn't eat the damn thing. "Oh, I didn't know that."

"That's okay; I got it covered." Taz hoped Hazel would wipe that beautiful, angelic smile off her face, because little by little, Taz was feeling less and less good about herself. "I had something ordered this morning."

With platter still in hand, Taz turned around to watch Hazel get something from the refrigerator, feeling weak and defeated, and had an overwhelming urge to throw her stupid, useless cake out of the window.

"It's a famous French dessert." Hazel explained, as if to answer an implied question. Taz looked curiously at the weird-looking gooey stuff; didn't seem so famous in her own recipe book. "It's Joe's favorite."

"I see." Taz kept a tight expression on her face.

"So, Taz, _oiu_?"

Taz made a mental scoff. So Hazel thought of her as something too insignificant that she'd carelessly drop her name? What if Taz told her she was Joe's girlfriend? Would she still be able to say 'So, Taz, right?' in that stupid, fancy almost-French accent?

"Yes."

"So Taz, how long have you been taking care of Isabelle?"

"Excuse me?"

"Babysitting. How long have you been babysitting Isabelle?

Oh, so she thought she was merely Isabelle's nanny. Taz asked strength from God, Buddha, Shiva, to anyone who'd be willing to listen, not to flare up right now. She had to keep it low-key; if Joe wasn't ready to tell the world she was his girlfriend, then she'd have to wait till he was.

"Um… I don't know, about a month?" She lied.

"Oh, is that so?" Hazel placed the platter aside and folded her arms. "And do you know who I am, Taz?"

"You mean, who you are in Isabelle's life?"

"_Oui…_"

Taz wasn't sure what to say next. "Yes. I do know you're her mother. Joe told me."

A look of gratefulness washed over Hazel's face, and after a moment or two, she seized the platter from the table and said, "_Très bien, merci_."When Taz gave her a strange look, she simply smiled and said, "That's all I needed to know."

When they got back to the table, Taz swore to God Hazel almost shoved the dessert to Joe's face. And much to Taz's chagrin, Joe's eyes brightened with joy at the sight of it. "Oh, Demoin La Fruita?"

Oh, so that's the name of the rotten food, Taz rolled her eyes mentally.

"Your favorite." Hazel's voice rang with too much self-satisfaction more than Taz could stand. She turned to Isabelle instead to avoid anything that she might regret seeing and wiped at her messed face.

Joe enthusiastically received the slice that Hazel handed to him. "Nikki, you want some?" Nikki shook her head sternly. Huh. At least Taz had someone who was on the same page with her. "What about you, Belles?"

Isabelle shook her head. "Want Mama's cranberry cake." Taz remembered then that Isabelle had been there hovering around her when she was baking the thing.

Hazel's eyes narrowed at the sound of "mama" coming from Belle's lips and directed to someone else and not her. She appeared to be so disappointed that she didn't even bother offering Taz a piece, which, honestly, Taz was thankful for.

"You want me to get you some, honey?" Taz asked the little girl, feeling a sense of pride all of a sudden.

"No, I'll have it later."

"Alright." She reached out to brush Isabelle's hair more affectionately than necessary, as though to tell Hazel, that yes, she deserved to be called Mama.

Hazel decided to ignore it and asked Joe, "You remember this, right?" Her tone was too meaningful to miss.

"Yeah," Joe said as he chewed and pondered reminiscently. "It was the dessert that that slow waiter served us in Vegas 'coz he thought we were a married couple on a honeymoon."

"Yeah… And we wanted free food so bad that we didn't burst his bubble and pretend that we just had our wedding." Joe and Hazel high-fived, laughing, and Joe said, "Oh, remember Mr. Poppy Pants?"

This time they were both knocked off their seats laughing at the seemingly funny memory of whatever Joe just said. Nikki rolled her eyes and continued to eat silently, while Taz wanted to run and have none of these inside and private jokes that only Joe and Hazel could relate to. It was like looking in to a world that only the two of them shared, and being locked out.

If lunch was bad, dinner was worse. Now that Hazel was in town, all the boys (because apparently, all of them were once close friends with her) came over to Joe's house to be a part of her sort-of welcome party. Hazel was scheduled to leave in three days, so 'her every minute here was precious.' according to Kevin himself.

And Taz had to sit there and suffer every second of isolation and remoteness; it felt like she wasn't a part of the little camaraderie that Hazel and the boys shared but was forced to watch every exchange of inside and private jokes that only they could understand. It was then that Taz realized Hazel had once been a huge part of their lives before, sharing a whole life and history filled with fun memories together. Taz had never felt so much self-pity in her life.

Joe had not touched her again since Hazel's arrival. And it felt weird, considering they'd been incredibly touchy-feely for the past few days. But today, Joe felt distant. Upon this realization, Taz wanted to dash to the bathroom and cry over the bowl. While wallowing in her misery in the living room, watching a cartoon with a drowsy Isabelle, Taz felt someone drop his body down the couch next to hers. Rynan.

"What are you watching?" He asked.

"I don't know. This cartoon about this kid turning into a dragon." Taz's voice sounded odd even to her own ears.

"Oh, that's Jake Long!" Rynan crowed excitedly, sitting himself to a more comfortable position.

"Yeah, whatever." She snapped. A little bit. Okay maybe it was wrong to snap at Rynan, but at this point, she just no longer cared about doing what's right anymore.

That being said, Rynan was a man who understood well. "I know why you're mad."

"I'm not mad." She didn't even have the strength to make her voice sound a little bit more realistic.

"Yeah, and I'm a space pilot who will navigate this ship to Mars." Rynan made a good point. "Look, it's okay to be mad, Taz. It's completely understandable."

Taz's chest heaved as a large amount of tired oxygen escaped her lungs. "Why do you say so?"

"It's jealousy that's making you mad. And it's them that's making you jealous." He pointed to the kitchen, where Hazel and the rest of the guys were having a good laugh; it seemed like Joe was telling a particularly joke, or a particularly funny experience, again. Ugh. "Right?"

She let out a muffled sound of failure. "Right."

"Taz," She felt Rynan's soothing hand on her shoulder, and wow, did that feel comforting right about now, "You see, Punkee and Haze had a past together. They were friends before they went out. And it's just two friends catching up. And you, you have nothing to worry or be jealous about."

"Rynan…"

"Look, I know it's hard. It really is. They were in love back in the day. But Taz, he's in love with you now."

See, that's what made it hard for her to avoid jealousy, no matter how much she tried. Because she hadn't heard a verbal confirmation of what he really felt about her. She was certain about what she felt about him, though. And she, too, hadn't spoken a word about it. "How do you know that?"

"It's as simple as this. After Haze left him, Punkee's never, ever, dated a girl before you. We took him out to clubs and parties to get him to move on and forget all about her and start living the life again, but in four years, he remained single, until there came a time when we just gave up. And then all of a sudden, you came into his life, with your scary knife."

Taz smiled at the thought.

"And Taz, Punkee has always been a happy person…" Rynan said slowly, "But never this happy."

She didn't know whether to believe or scoff at that. Maybe Rynan was merely trying to make her feel better. It was best to go with that theory than get hurt in the end. "But he was this happy when he was with her, wasn't he?"

Rynan wanted to nod but looked like he was stopping himself. "The point is, it was over, she left a scar that can never be healed forever, and she's here now because of a business trip, and Punkee's happy with you. End of story."

"You make it sound so easy and simple."

"It is easy and simple, Taz. Trust me, you'll see."

Taz wrapped her arms around Rynan, not because she was entirely convinced of what he just said, but because of the gesture and the effort he was making to comfort her out of her misery. Really. Taz was more touched than she had expected. "Thank you, Rynan."

"No, thank you, Taz. For giving us hope." He said, his eyes suddenly consumed by wisdom, "At least now we know there's still a chance to mend his broken heart."

"Are you picking out a line from a song?" Taz joked.

Rynan rolled his eyes and looked at her with appreciative eyes. "You hold on, okay? Now smile for me."

She forced a fake smile, an obvious fake smile and Rynan kneaded her. "I said smile, not scare Isabelle away."

She laughed, and a curious Isabelle shifted her eyes to them at the sound of her name. "I'm not scared."

Taz felt better afterwards. She pulled Isabelle closer to her and gave her strawberry kisses that made her giggle and scream "Tickles!". Joe had always reminded how ticklish Belle could get.

Two days later. Taz was happy to know that Hazel was finally leaving the day after that. She had been doing an excellent job pushing Taz down and down and down the food chain, and making her feel like she had no real purpose in Joe's life, or in anyone's life, for that matter. Yes, Hazel was still clueless of the fact that Taz played a much better and more important role than babysitting Isabelle. Joe didn't seem like he was planning on telling her anytime soon though, so Taz kept her mouth shut. Plus, she and Joe never really had a serious, grown-up talk about Hazel – she was either mentioned in passing or spoken of in a casual note.

For the past two days and a half Hazel had been the center of everything. Center of Joe's attention, actually. The boys asked for her, ate meal with her, and although Isabelle still was having no remote idea who this Hazel girl was and why on earth was she in their home a lot, Hazel became a part of their daily routine.

And again, Taz was eaten by that overwhelming self-pity whenever she remembered she was set apart by a wide, alligator-guarded river from their little group. And there was no crossing that line at all.

One time Hazel joined them at the studio. It had used to be the only place where Taz didn't see her, but oh, they just heard that Hazel's meeting cancelled, and much to Taz's dread, she was able to drop by at the rehearsal. What made it worse was that Nikki wasn't there. So that left the two of them ladies lumped together down on the floor while they watched the boys dance. Hazel clapped and cooed and did every bit of the things Taz used to do when they'd do something completely mind-blowing on the dance floor, but it seemed like this new girl was stripping her off from what little limelight she had. And then it struck her. Hazel wasn't the new girl; Taz was. And this made her shut up and stare into space.

"Go Punkee!" Hazel yelled, and Joe made a funny face like he was blushing at the flattery, batting his eyelashes exaggeratedly. Taz observed, too, that whenever Joe got into his solos, Hazel went quiet and seemed to concentrate in silence, gazing at Joe like he was the only person in the room. Hell, Taz used to do that, too! What was this woman? A byter? Ugh.

"I miss watching these guys." It appeared that Hazel was reminiscing dreamily to no one in particular, but Taz thought it was possible she was speaking to her. "I also used to dance; I had my own other crew, which Punkee was also a part of – and he and I were always a duo on the dance floor. I remember when we did a duet to 'Talk', you know that song, Taz?" This was when she knew for sure Hazel was making conversation with her; Taz shook her head. "It's a beautiful song, and Punkee loved to dance to it. Especially with me."

In the middle of Rynan's headspin, Taz seemed lost in the time. The nasty feeling in her stomach was back, this time, a hell lot nastier, and if she could just turn back time and choose not to listen to Hazel's reminiscence, maybe she wouldn't be feeling this bad.

"So, you always watch them, Taz? Aren't you supposed to be looking after Isabelle?"

"It's my day-off." She lied, again. "And yes, I always watch them dance. It's something to look at."

"It is, isn't it?" Hazel smiled. "So, um, you and Isabelle seem pretty close. Do you ever talk to her about me?"

"She doesn't know you're her mom." Taz snapped bitterly, her patience growing thin.

Hazel looked offended for a moment, but then her pretty face smoothed into calmness right away. "That's alright. Punkee and I are planning on telling her soon."

"What?" This time she did raise her voice. "He said that?"

"Yeah. We both think it's for the best."

It wasn't for the best! Taz wanted to yell in objection. Because it'd be just plain cold-blooded murder if you told the child that you're her mother and leave in, what, two days? "But aren't you leaving soon?"

"Actually I'm planning to stay." Hazel smiled, and expected Taz to smile with her. But hell if Taz could even talk right now. "But, _s'il vous plait_, don't tell Punkee yet, I'm planning on surprising him."

Then Taz felt the world descend on top of her, crushing her into little, insecure pieces. She crouched further down the floor, wondering how she'd be able to handle the truth.

"That was perfect! Vegas is not gonna know what hit him!" Hazel got to her feet and rushed to the boys' side as the number finished. They all dispersed and ran for water, while Taz remained curled up on the floor, hugging her knees close to her aching chest in her weak arms. She looked up just in time to catch Joe taking his top off and Hazel seizing a towel and rubbing it all over his back, wiping his sweat away. Joe looked behind him to smile at Hazel, Taz getting a clear view of the intimate, grateful twinkle in his eyes. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to run away from there. How could Joe afford to flirt with that woman in front of her? How? Did he even care at all how it would hurt her?

It wasn't long before the other guys realized what was happening, awkward, tensed looks plastered on their faces. Then Rynan screamed and said something funny, which Taz paid no attention to, and everyone was laughing except her.

It was on the fourth day that Taz started having her suspicions. Nikki took her out, saying she had all day to spoil Taz with all the baby-sitting money that Phil had stubbornly given her, and it felt like stalker mode when they spied on Joe and Hazel together in _Damien's Jewels and Stones_. They both looked so happy shopping for jewelry, Hazel trying different rings on (that looked like engagement rings) and Joe touching her hand and studying it ring after ring after ring, huge smiles on their faces. Nikki had the decency to confess to Taz that that was the same shop where Joe picked up his own planned engagement ring for Hazel four years ago. The ring that was probably still kept safe in Joe's closet even to this day. Taz lost what little appetite she had and pushed the Red Jungle cake away from her face. Nikki promised to make it all better by getting them two tickets to the Kings game, but Taz ended up vomiting in the ladies' room the whole time. There was just no consoling her at this point.

Evening came and Taz wasn't feeling any better; Joe left her a message saying he'd spend the night at Hazel's hotel, because they had something "important" to talk about. But she was physically hurting right now, too. She was having a mild cough and she thought Gracie's back rubs would relieve the pain in her chest but they weren't helping at all. "Maybe I should call a chiropractor." Gracie said.

"No…" Taz moaned, her nose clogged. Great, she was catching the flu. "Grace, just get me another glass of lemon tea and I'll feel better."

"Taz, you've had five glasses of those and sorry to burst you bubble, but they're not doing any good."

"Is Aunt Taz gonna be okay, Mom?" Abby asked, brushing some of Taz's messy bangs off her face. Taz was lying flat on her stomach, because lying in supine position made it hard to get some breathing done.

"Yes, honey. She's gonna be fine." Gracie said in her motherly, soothing voice. Then Taz objected as she heard the sound of numbers being dialed. "Grace, I told you, I don't need a chiropractor."

"I'm not calling a chiropractor." Gracie defended. "I'm calling Joe."

Then Taz's eyes widened in terror, jolting up from the bed. "NO!" She seized the phone from Gracie's hands. Gracie looked at her with shocked, questioning eyes. And then Taz cleared her throat and climbed back to bed. "He won't be any help."

Gracie sat down on the bed beside her. "Did something happen?"

Taz lied on her side so she was turning her back to Gracie. "Nothing happened; nothing happened at all."

"You can tell me." Gracie stroked her shoulders.

When the silence ensued, she cleared her throat. "You know Taz, in a relationship, there will always be times when you find yourselves in a place where you can't agree with each other… causing arguments, and verbal clashes."

"Joe and I are NOT in a relationship, Grace." Taz snapped with enough conviction to put a concerned look on Gracie's face.

"Taz…"

"I don't wanna talk about it."

Taz could hear the sad sound that Gracie made. "Alright." She said with too much empathy. "Will you at least let me call the chiropractor now?"

Taz gave her a small nod.

When the chiropractor arrived, Taz was shocked to hear a familiar voice echoing on the hallway leading to her room, chatting with Gracie.

"Hey, Taz!"

"Phi?" Taz got up from her bed and was surprised to see Phi in a white over-all uniform. "You're the chiropractor?"

"Yep, I make the sick feel better with the use of these magic hands." He said cheerfully. "The company was supposed to send in another guy, but when I saw the address, I decided to take his place. Maybe I can give you a treatment, free of charge."

"No, no, no. I'm paying." Taz waved her hand.

"I'm gonna leave the two of you alone. Thanks again, Phi." Phi managed to give a "no problem, Gracie" before she closed door behind her.

"So, what seems to be the problem, girl? You hurt your back?"

Taz muttered a silent "mmm" and asked, "How should I lie on the bed?"

"Well, you can assume a prone position." Phi instructed, pouring some sort of therapeutic liquid all over his hands.

She laid herself flat on her belly again, and moaned as Phi's hands came in delicate contact with her bare back. "So, you do this for a living?"

"Yep. Some people call me a masseur but I beg to differ. I'm a medical chiropractor, that's a huge difference." He whined as though this subject was a sensitive issue he had to deal with everyday.

"Oh, you don't how good you are at this, Phi." Taz never felt better in her life as Phi performed what she believed to be effleurage on her lower back. His fingertips stroke places that she never knew were there before.

Phi gave out a proud laugh.

They both continued making small talk, with Phi working wonders on her back, while she endlessly listened to his voice, her eyes barely open from all the pleasure, when the subject of Hazel and Joe came up. Taz pretended her Zen-ish mood wasn't ruined by the sudden mention of their names in one sentence. Phi's tone started out casual, noting "Haze has been away for too long, and it's a little hard for Punkee to take in that's she's here now. It's like seeing a dead person come to life."

Taz remembered Joe's ashen face when he first saw Hazel marching into his kitchen that day. Seeing a ghost would indeed be the perfect description for the dumbfounded look on his face. She was always reminded though how such look morphed into something more compassionate.

"I mean, he did tell you what happened between them, right?"

No, Joe didn't mention one thing about Hazel to her that pertained to the past. Maybe it was still too painful to deal with, much more talk about it. Huh. Taz should've known better.

"I heard about it from Nikki."

"Punkee didn't tell you?"

"No, Punkee didn't tell me, alright." She stressed out the word "Punkee."

"Oh, well, then. Since you've heard it from Nikki, I'm sure you know how hard it was for Punkee back then."

"Yeah."

Phi kept pressure on her spine. "Taz, this is hard for me to say but…"

"What?"

His fingers paused. "You have no idea how much he misses Haze, and it might hurt you that they're spending a lot of time together, but please, just let him do it."

"I'm not stopping him, Phi." Taz's voice came out a little angrier than she had intended to. "I want Joe to be happy. And if he's happy with her, why would I forbid him?"

"Because he's your boyfriend."

"That's what I thought, too."

"What do you mean?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if one day Joe tells me he's gonna get back together with her." Yes, it would hurt her in a million different ways, it would piss her off…. But it wouldn't surprise her anymore.

"Taz, don't talk like that." Phi begged. "Punkee wouldn't do that to you."

"Well, you tell Punkee that when he's letting her wipe off his sweat while I sit there, catching every look of longing in their eyes."

"He just misses her, that's all. They were close buddies before they became a couple."

"Well, I'm sorry if I'm being a little paranoid." Taz apologized, the angry sarcasm thick in her voice, finally sitting up from the bed being on her belly for too long. "But it seems to me that I'm as insignificant as a bug on the window to him every time she's around."

"Because all this of this is still overwhelming, Taz. It's been four years since the last time they saw each other. You can't blame him for wanting to spend his every minute with her. His excitement will die down eventually."

"When? When Hazel asks him to move in with her?"

"What?"

"Nothing." Taz mumbled nervously, knowing she'd revealed too much.

"Look, it'll be okay." Phi stared into her eyes. "Hey, are you crying?"

"No." She lied. "It's the colds – I'm breathing through my mouth."

"Let's get you back on your tummy. I'mma do your legs now. Come on." Phi assisted her to get on her stomach again, and she knew no amount of magic massage could take the pain away now. She closed her eyes, not because the strokes on the back of her knees felt good, but because tears were threatening to spill.

Right then she knew what she had to do.

*******916143

Nikki found it irresistible at that time to kick her brother in the nuts. He had promised her. He had promised her that he'd drive her to that reservation a few miles outside the city. But he backed out at the last minute.

"I'm sorry, but Hazel wouldn't take no for an answer."

"You're going out with her?" Nikki asked in utter disbelief. "Again?"

"Yes, she's taking me to this opening of her friend's place." He answered casually.

Ugh. She loathed that woman to begin with, she hated her more now. Plus, weren't Joe and Taz dating? As far as she knew, it was still not common practice to stick your tongue down a friend's throat, even in this generation.

"Well, does Taz know about it?"

Joe was buttoning the cuff on his polo shirt when something stopped him dead. "Taz."

"Yeah, Taz." It seemed to Nikki that Joe needed reminding that he had to get past a nuisance such as Taz. "Taz, who I believe is your girlfriend. It's either that or you're just too touchy-feely with her." Nikki added sarcastically.

"I'm sure she'd understand."

"Wow, Joe. What a line." She crossed her arms, challenging Joe to defend himself. "Just because Hazel is back, doesn't mean you can just leave Taz behind like she never existed."

"I'm not leaving her behind." Joe reasoned, his tone unsure of his own words.

"Really? Do you even know she's caught the flu?"

"What?" This seemed to awake him, his eyes widening. "How did you know?"

"Phi told me. He was her order-in chiropractor last night. Taz had trouble breathing, and thrown up a couple of times, which you would know if you weren't so absorbed in your own little world now with a capital H in it."

Before she could finish, Joe was out the door, probably to go look for Taz. Shit. Now, where did that leave her? She was pissed both at the facts that Joe broke his promise, and that he wasn't here to receive his verbal punishment from her.

Nikki hated to take the cab – she wasn't comfortable riding in public vehicles for some reason. Short-distance commute was okay, but the reservation was at least fifty miles away from Del Paso. She weighed her options for almost an hour: would she rather brave to take a taxi and take shots of those magnificent beds of chrysanthemums with her new camera or would she rather stay here and fail her photography professor with a disappointing F on her most liked subject? Think, Nikki, think.

And then in the middle of deep-thinking, the doorbell rang. Nikki marched down the stairs, spitting out curses for her brother, when she heard a familiar laugh outside the door. When she opened it, sure enough, Phil's mischievous face came to view.

"Joe's not here." Nikki snapped, not needing Phil's too overwhelming presence at the moment.

"I know, I'm on the phone with him." Phil said, his laugh dying down. "Alright, bro, I'll talk to you soon. Time to face the dragon now." He snapped his phone shut and buried it into his pockets. "What are you waiting for? Let's go."

"Go where?" Nikki asked, eyebrows meeting.

"To the reservation, duh?"

"You're driving me to the reservation?" She exclaimed, knowing her brother was the master mind behind this. He was gonna pay for it soon. "Don't you have anything better to do?"

"No, it's Saturday. Architects don't work on Saturdays, well except the dumb ones." Nikki rolled her eyes. "Hey, Joe's right; you're having your period."

"What do you want, Phil?"

"I wanna drive you."

"You do realize this is gonna take a lot of hours from your day?"

"Yeah, Joe warmed me how much of a pain-in-the-ass you can be when you're taking your precious pictures."

"Did he forget to tell you that he's a complete dick and that he deserves to grow another testicle just about now?"

Phil laughed, "You're funny. Get your camera; we're going."

"And what makes you think I'm going with you?" Nikki folded her arms and didn't leave her ground.

Phil's voice turned soft, exactly the one that belonged to the Phil she'd gotten to know lately, when he said. "Because you can't deny to yourself that the one that you'd choose to be stuck in a deserted island with is me."

It sounded like a silent command. Nikki ran back up the stairs, grabbing her bag and camera from her study table.

No one was speaking inside the car as Phil began driving them farther and farther away from the block. Nikki's fingers fidgeted with the radio, and Phil kept his eyes on the road. She looked out the window, seeing the busy street drift away before her eyes. When 'Birthday Sex' came on, they remained quiet. Then after a second or two, Phil's tiny giggle spurted out and soon enough they were both laughing, singing along to some of the words, "It's your birthday, so I know you want to ri-i-i-i-i-de out… Even if we only come to my-ah-ah-ah-ah house…"

"This should be our theme song." Phil's voice stirred above all the music blaring out of the radio. Nikki smiled in complete, submissive agreement as she continued singing.

"How's the camera working for you?" Phil asked after a while.

A sudden idea came to Nikki's mind and she pulled the camera up, taking a stolen shot of Phil's unprepared face.

"Hey, stop that!" She laughed as Phil tried to take cover, swatting the camera away.

"Oh, come on, Swagger Boy, give me your bestest smile."

"Bestest smile?"

Nikki felt a tiny eruption in her heart as Phil got into one of his care-free, no-holds-barred smiles. He had the best set of white, uneven teeth Nikki had ever seen, and there was no denying that she was in dire love with the way his eyes disappeared into thin slits as full cheeks crinkled along. His smiles were a panty-dropper and Nikki's panties were his regular helpless victims. She made no hesitation and snapped her camera away.

"Nikki, stop it!"

Giggling, she tried to get his hands out of the way so she could attack at a better angle as he struggled to fight back, her camera already serving its purpose. "Nikki, I swear, if you don't stop right now, I'm gonna kiss you." Nikki did stop then, swallowing hard, and throwing her camera at the backseat where she wouldn't be able to reach out for it easily.

"You do realize that I am a pain-in-the-ass when I'm taking my pictures, right?" Nikki laid her head against the seat comfortably, looking sideways at Phil, whose hands were strumming to the beat of the song playing on the radio. She ached to touch those fingers again. If only Phil would just read between the lines.

"Is this the part where I'm supposed to pretend that Joe hadn't told me anything?" Phil said, his tone fond, never taking his eyes off the road. Nikki nodded. "Well, then, no, I don't realize that you are a pain-in-the-ass when you're taking your pictures. But honestly, Nik? I don't really care. You can be as much painful in my ass as you want, and I'd still love you."

Nikki knew it was a playful statement but it felt good to hear it anyway. The hours went on as songs after songs from different genres played on the radio, Nikki shamelessly staring at Phil's right cheek whenever he was looking straight ahead, and snapping her head in another direction whenever she felt Phil turn his head to the right. There were times when they would just catch themselves staring at each other, then songs like "You… light up my life... You give me hope to carry on… You light up my day…" playing in the background, and they'd just smile at each other with so much understanding like they were the only two people in the world.

Love-and-hate. Could this expression be more appropriate for their current situation? Could it?

Nikki's eyes went wide as stretches of white and yellow chrysanthemums greeted her eyes, her hand waving at Phil behind her as though to tell him to stop. The car came to a smooth halt, and she snatched her camera and flew out the door, almost tripping over in the untied shoelaces of her sneakers. She heard Phil call out to her, "Hey, slow down, woman."

It took Nikki a lifetime before she could find the perfect angle, lighting and effect that satisfied her digital appetite. She let her two-thousand dollar-worth of a superadvance, superhigh-tech, superefficient camera impress her into ecstasy. She didn't know why, but photography was a part of her being. Stroking that part of her would be an equivalent to stroking her G-spot, no kidding. When she explained her passion for photography to Joe in that phrasing, he simply made a face and covered his ears, that ass.

"I'm seriously having an orgasm right now." Nikki hadn't meant to say it aloud, but judging from the tickled expression on Phil's face, she realized she must've strained her words more than she had intended.

"Boy, are those tiny weeds lucky to have that effect on you?"

"They're not weeds!" She protested immediately. "Okay, maybe they're wild, but these precious babies are not weeds." She let her fingers run through their humble little petals.

The first few shots that she'd taken were okay, but something was missing. They would pass for a photography challenge, but they weren't good enough to move her to tears. Yes, sometimes Nikki suspected that photos have souls, and they reach out to people who have eyes for them. Call her crazy, but that's her belief. And no one messes with her belief.

Nikki looked back at Phil, who was leaning against the hood of the car, hands in his pockets, sweating under the heat of the sun. She was suddenly finding herself biting her lower lip. If Phil in his blue shirt and dark jeans wasn't food for the eye, she didn't know what was. Okay, she had to admit, he had a short stature, but he had more than enough self-confidence to overshadow and compensate for whatever it was that he lacked. Nikki found that as a perfect opportunity to take a stolen photo of a clueless Phil again. When he heard the shutter click, his head frantically turned to look for Nikki and her sneaky camera, and once he spotted her, a naughty, devilish grin appeared on his face. Nikki was initially confused as to what was happening but seeing Phil run determinedly over to her, something dawned on her head. She yelled in playful horror as she hurried to dash away, Phil chasing persistently after her. Her loud screams filled the air while her feet ran as fast as they could, caring little to none if she would fall headfirst on the dusty grounds of the reservation. It was a beautiful day after all, with all the trees and miniature hills in the scene; she'd like to feel for once how it would be like if she let all hair down and trip and fall like a little kid and laugh about it later with Phil. Speaking of which – where was…?

"Oh!" Nikki felt a sudden jolt of excitement as two arms snaked around her waist from behind.

"Gotcha!" Phil crowed proudly, still holding her close to his body. Nikki had a moment to consider that every inch of her frontal region was touching Phil's. From her chest down to the last inches of her legs, she felt the fullness of his body against hers.

Then suddenly it got quiet. Shimmers in the air. Nothing else was making a sound except their deep, heavy breathing, their chests heaving up and down into and against each other. Phil's mouth was conveniently open, just the perfect condition to initiate a first kiss with, and it would be so easy to lean in and suck those parted lips into her own watering mouth. It took all Nikki's will power to stay where she was and have Phil make the first move. And when Phil was courageous enough to lean closer, her heartbeat stopped, her breath hitched and the world seemed to pause… a live dessert lizard just landed on her shoulder.

Phil saw it, Nikki saw it, and they both panicked, swatting the green, poisonous creature away. It took about a two-minute swatting before it crawled its way back behind the rocks. A moment's silence, then Nikki found herself giggling helplessly, both disappointed and relieved at the same time, while Phil decided to laugh along.

They found their way back to the car and Nikki continued making artistic shots at the beds of flowers that were beautifying the otherwise boring field. Phil noticed every frustrated sigh that Nikki heaved every time she checked out her taken pictures. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know… I'm not feeling myself today." Yes, Nikki, you were about to kiss, now stop thinking about it. "I'm not really satisfied with anything so far."

"What about this? Does this help?" Nikki almost lost her balance as she felt Phil's hands covered her own, again, from behind. Now both of them were touching the camera, and Nikki could smell the cologne on Phil's neck. This guy was such a freaking tease! Ugh! She tried to concentrate on the lens, adjusting and readjusting again for a better capture, and she was afraid that she might drop the camera as Phil's nose nuzzled her hair and stayed there for a moment, and then slowly, it travelled down her cheek… her jaw and Nikki's heart collapsed when it reached her neck. It felt so erotic that Nikki felt her knees start to shake, weakening, almost unable to bear under her weight. Phil sniffed once, twice and without looking anywhere else, his forefinger pressed down gently on Nikki's own finger, and to Nikki's surprise, the shutter clicked and a photo was taken.

And then Phil pried himself off of her and left Nikki heating in her own skin. She stared helplessly at Phil's back as he strolled back to the car, her desire for him growing to alarming proportions. As soon as she recovered, she checked out the photo that had been taken in the midst of all the aroused oblivion that she was lost into. Nikki's eyes feasted on the most beautiful picture she, or technically, Phil, had ever taken so far that day. Yeah, this was definitely a winner. Guess she was done for the day, because if Mr. Downy would have problems giving her a lousy grade with this work of art, then she'd more than love to smack his head with his oversized board stick.

Nikki climbed back inside the car, slamming the door shut.

Phil gave her a questioning look. "You done?"

She nodded her head as she voiced a breathless "Yeah."

"Let me see."

Slowly she handed Phil the camera, avoiding his eyes, and waited agitatedly for his response.

"It's perfect." He said after a moment of silence.

Her heart did a little happy back flip. "You think so? Because I really need an A right now."

"Your fat A is staring right at you. If your professor won't you give you one, he's crazy."

"Phil…" Nikki cleared her throat, "You're the one who took this, so… thank you."

"Me?"

Yes, you. You were the one who pressed down the 'capture' button while your lips and nose were doing a whole scheme of unspeakable things to every sensitive part of my skin! She wanted to scream. "Yeah, you."

Phil pretended he didn't know what she was talking about but didn't press the subject. "So, are you gonna call it a day?"

"Yeah."

Phil and Nikki put on their seatbelts, Phil turning on the ignition and soon they were driving back to the city.

While Nikki got what she needed, a nice A+ worth photo that she could brag to her classmates later, she didn't get what she really wanted. And that was to get some kissing action happening with this sometimes-aggressive, sometimes-slow guy. She just didn't understand him. One minute he was a jerk, next minute he was a gentleman; one minute he was coy, next minute he was innocent and so, so frigging clueless. Nikki was starting to get sick and tired of this game that, at this point, seemed to go nowhere. If Phil Tayag wanted her, why couldn't he just come out tell her and kiss Nikki till they both ran out of breath? Nikki realized then, with utter clarity, that this was exactly the reason why there was a need for her to get over this stupidity and forget about this guy who didn't deserve all her emotional allotment she was saving for him. There was just no figuring the Swagger Boy out. No wonder Heidi gave up on him.

Thirty miles into the city and dark, gray clouds started to hover above them. Nikki felt her eyes drooping from exhaustion, which was questionable in itself because she couldn't remember physically tiring herself out. Emotionally, maybe, but…

"Hey, you want to get some ice cream?"

She looked up to see Phil pointing to a nearby ice cream stand, his eyes sparkling with enthusiasm and she smiled, nodding, and the car came to an abrupt stop.

Nikki got herself a Rocky Road special with marshmallows and nuts and rice crispies on top, while Phil decided to get Vanilla supreme showered with red (red, because that was the only color Phil could eat) M&M's. They ate their cones outside the car, leaning contentedly on the hood like little kids who got away from their parents' supervision. "It's been awhile since I last ate ice cream off a cone." Phil mused. "Aww, man, I miss this."

Nikki gazed adoringly at Phil, who was eagerly licking his ice cream like he hadn't had them since forever, a wide smile on her face. "Yeah, it's good." She said, itching to reach out and wipe the huge vanilla smudge on Phil's cheek. "You got something on…"

"Where? Oh…" Phil did wipe it off, looking like an innocent fourteen-year-old all over again. "All good?"

Perfect. "Yeah."

They continued to finish their ice cream silently when Nikki remembered something. "So Vegas is coming pretty close, huh?"

"Why, you gonna miss me?" He joked.

Nikki ignored it, although she wanted badly to say yes. "I know I've never told anyone this before but I'm proud of you guys. I hope this is gonna be your big break."

"We just hope we won't mess up, and there won't be no technical errors whatsoever. Remember that night in Cardigans?"

Nikki remembered that night well in Cardigans. Stupid DJ's couldn't get their job done right so the boys ended up dancing to a fast-forwarded song. "Yeah. I still curse that fat DJ to this day."

Phil laughed, "But you did good. You got everyone to cheer for us in spite of all of it."

"You were doing your chest pops, Phil. You could dance to a Frank Sinatra song, for all I care and people would still cheer for you."

He blushed. "Really? You love 'em chest pops, eh?"

Nikki rolled her eyes. "So how are the kids? I miss them so much."

"They're missing you, too. Jaya's asking for you and your Bolognese all the time."

"Well, tell them I love them and that fat kid Jimmy won't be messing with them anymore."

Phil laughed, "Who's Jimmy?"

She scoffed. "Never mind."

Nikki felt one rain drop, then two, then three and it wasn't long before an actual downpour showered over them. "Crap!" Nikki and Phil scrambled to run back inside the car, not realizing that they were both entering the wrong door. Nikki found herself seated at the driver's seat, laughing at the unexpected rainstorm. She looked sideways at Phil who was struggling with the ice cream melting all over his hand. "Mmph." He mumbled as he tried to lick the ice cream off. Nikki laughed and searched for napkins at the glove compartment – there were none, so she flashed him a disappointed look. Phil shrugged innocently, almost half of his face covered in vanilla. Before she could help herself, Nikki extended a hand and gently brushed all the mess off Phil's face with her thumb. This seemed to catch him a little off guard, if only his curious eyes on her were any indication.

Nikki pulled her hand back and smiled to herself. That was some move right there.

Phil cleared his throat, rolling the window down, and threw the massacred cone of ice cream out. "Looks like it's gonna be raining all night."

"Yeah, looks like." She agreed, looking out the window for the heavy, gray skies pouring away. "We should probably switch seats now."

For fear of getting wet, they decided to switch seats inside the car, which, if Nikki were to be honest, was a little too intimate, with their bodies squeezing and pressing into each other, struggling to crawl back into their own rightful seats.

"Um… Nik, my leg… Ow."

"Oh, sorry, my foot is stuck, wait."

Many futile attempts later, Nikki finally found herself on the front passenger's seat; she panted and tried to catch her breath, the feel of Phil's warm body being pushed up against hers lingering for a moment. When she lifted her head, she felt herself melting under the scorching look on Phil's eyes burning into her. It looked like Phil was straining against his own willing, with his shaking fingers, pursed lips. Was Phil possibly stopping himself from kissing her? Holey Guacamole if she didn't lose control now.

Nikki did lean forward then, going directly for his mouth. She was giving him a timid, close-mouthed kiss that Phil didn't appear to be responding to. Embarrassed beyond belief, Nikki pulled back but was surprised to have Phil's strong hand at the back of her neck, pushing her back to him. This time Phil caught on, and attacked her mouth with a deep, slow kiss, causing Nikki to lose what little strength she had. Nikki kissed back, just as deeply, just as eagerly, and soon enough of them both of them were biting, sucking and licking at each other's mouths, ravenous for touch. Just then a thunder blasted across the skies, or maybe it was just Nikki's racing heart beat. She hadn't realized Phil maneuvered their bodies forward until Nikki felt the door handle digging sharply into her back, her legs spread wide open to let Phil climb in between them. Nikki felt Phil's hot lips slip down to her neck, and as though awaken by a siren of conscience, she pushed him off of her.

Nikki wiped at her mouth, like that would erase what she had just done, while Phil stared helplessly open-mouthed at her, as if to ask "What's wrong?"

"We shouldn't have done that." She muttered under her breath, her heart still racing.

"Why not?" Phil whined. "Nikki, you and I both know that we've both wanted this to happen for so long. Don't you even deny it to me now."

"Yeah, but that's the problem, Phil. You…" she searched for the right words to say, "…keep sending me these mixed signals, like you're not even sure what you're supposed to feel, and everyday it seems like you're making me wait for nothing."

"I am sure of what I'm supposed to feel, Nik." Phil's voice sounded tired. "I always had feelings for you… maybe I hadn't known then what they were exactly, but they were there; you've always been special to me, in case you haven't noticed."

"Oh, Phil, stop it." Nikki spat. "Today you're telling me that, and tomorrow you'll be acting like it never happened. That's what you do, Phil. You play with my head. And I hate you. I hate you."

"Nik…"

"Don't. Don't confuse me, please. It's emotionally draining, I'm telling you. I see you almost everyday because you're my brother's friend but I don't know how I'm supposed to feel about you every time you're around; I panic, I freak out. Every day I struggle with what I'm feeling. And it's taking a lot out of me."

"But Nikki…" Phil took her face in his hand, looking straight into her eyes, "I do like you. You don't have to be confused now."

"But I don't like you, Phil." What are you doing, Nikki! What are you talking about?

"What?" Phil's eyes narrowed, and his forehead creased. "But I thought…"

"You thought wrong…" Nikki, don't do this… don't say it… "I don't like you… I…" Nikki took a deep breath and said, "I love you." There it is. "You think you can handle that?"

Phil looked like a truck just ran over him, his ashen face stripping Nikki of what was left of her dignity. He seemed unable to speak, pulling his hands from her face, and placing it weakly on the steering wheel. Nikki sank further down her chair, wanting to curl up and die, and just disappear from the world. She just professed the biggest secret of her life, that one that she had protected for so long, and the reaction that she got was the only reaction that she was expecting. She wasn't surprised, but she was hurt beyond words. And now it was out. It was out for Phil, and for everyone else to laugh and scoff at; they might even tell and retell that pathetic little Nikki fell in love with a guy who wasn't feeling the same.

"We should probably get going; it doesn't seem like the rainstorm is dying down anytime soon." Phil broke the silence, his voice casual and cold like nothing happened.

Like they didn't just make out and kiss themselves out of their own sanity, and a love confession didn't just ensue.

Nikki cleared her throat, trying to keep the tears in and said, "Yeah… we should."

*****916143

It was Joe. Joe was here, Joe was visiting her. Or was he? Taz couldn't be too sure. It felt good to see Joe after all the crap she had gone through the night before. He gave her a lazy smile and a quick kiss on the lips, which Taz was more than happy to respond to. Taz walked them over to the living room, plopping themselves on the couch.

"What are you doing here?" If Taz had an evil twin, she probably would have asked, "where's that bitch who looks like she's attached to your hip?"

"Just checking up on you. I heard from Nikki that you were sick last night. Were you?" Joe gave her a concerned look, a genuine one.

It was then that Taz noticed he looked like he was about to go out. "Were you gonna be out tonight?"

"Taz, you didn't answer my question."

Taz heaved a sigh, "It was nothing. I just wasn't feeling that good. Must be something I ate. Now answer mine."

"Why didn't you call me?" Joe asked, insisting. Or was he avoiding the question?

"Because… Because you were out."

"Huh." That seemed to slap him on the face. It probably hadn't crossed his mind that his girlfriend needed him at home while he was making out with Hazel in a darkened room at a club. Taz was horrified at the very image of it, and shut her mind off.

"And I didn't want to bother you or anything. You were probably busy."… cheating on me, she was tempted to add.

"I'm sorry. I was at _Flowers and Bakers_ last night." Flowers and Bakers? Wasn't that a famous boutique for wedding cakes and flower arrangements? "But you should have let me know at least. I could've been there for you." Joe's hand moved to caress her hair that got her flinching and jerking backwards for a bit – even his touch hurt her now, reminding her wretchedly how she was gonna miss it so bad.

"Like I said, I wouldn't want to brother you if you were doing something important…" Like going to Flowers and Bakers… please don't let it be that he came with Hazel? "So, what about you? You look like you ought to be somewhere fancy right now."

"Ah, no, Hazel has asked me to check out this new place called La Voine. Her friend owns the place and…"

Taz's inner monster growled angrily at the sound of her name. "What are you doing here, then?"

Joe blinked his eyes a couple of times. "Because I want to know if you're ok."

Taz wrapped her arms around herself, knowing she had lost the battle. "Well, as you can see, I am ok. Now go do your thing with Hazel."

"But wouldn't you rather have me stay…?" He was catching on now. "Taz, is there something wrong?"

"No…" The lie that she had been practicing on. "Nothing's wrong. Everything is falling into place actually."

"What are you talking about?"

"Joe," Taz began, "I know what happened between you and Hazel. I know that she left you and Isabelle behind. I know that she went to France and stayed there for four years without having any contact with any of you." She paused – this was the hardest part. "But I also know that you loved her very much. And now she's back, and so willing to take you back."

Joe looked confused. He was probably wondering how and where she'd gotten all this information. "How did you -?"

"Nikki told me everything I had to know. But you, being the secretive guy that you were, never told me one thing about this." Taz was ready to let it all out now – the pain, the hurt – everything. "But who was I to complain? Was I even your girlfriend at all, Joe? We were going out for barely a week, and then Hazel swooped in and knocked you off your own consciousness."

"You think that I'm still in love with Hazel?"

"Well, aren't you? Ever since she got here, all you have been doing is spend every waking hour together. And please don't give me that whole crap about filling in your time because she's leaving soon, because you and I both know that she's not."

"What?"

"She's staying here for good. There, I said it." Taz huffed, her heart aching.

"How did you know all this?"

"It doesn't matter, Joe. The thing is, I'm not gonna be the girl who's gonna make it difficult for you. If you want Hazel back, you're free to have her." Taz hated the look of hurt on Joe's face. "But please, have the decency to say it to my face, and not play me around like a fool."

"Taz…" Joe's voice sounded rusty. "You don't understand –"

"What don't I understand, Joe? I understand all of this. I understand that I'm not gonna be as good for you as Hazel. I understand that you guys shared a huge part of your life together – and us" Taz gestured between the two of them, "What did we share Joe? I haven't been in this place for barely a month. How am I supposed to even begin to compare myself to her? I didn't even know you were allergic to cranberries, for Christ's sake." Taz wanted to slap herself, she promised she wouldn't cry during this confrontation, she promised. But how could she help it now? How? Not when she was about to give up someone whom she thought she could a whole mess of life with: evening bedroom chats, showers together, arguments, make-up kisses, cuddling during cold, stormy nights, wedding…? Okay, now she was really crying. She had this deep, overwhelming yearning to experience all those things, all that Hazel had probably experienced herself, but now… they're… gone.

"Taz, Hazel is getting married."

"Yeah, with you." Taz answered curtly, her vision blurring from the tears forming in her eyes. "_Damien's Jewels_? Now, _Flowers and Bakers? _The signs are all there, Joe. I just chose to ignore them." Because I was neck-deep in love with you, and believing all of this would hurt me beyond imaginable, she wanted to say but fought strongly against it.

Joe shook his head like swatting invisible mosquitoes away, looking confused. "Taz, you got it all wrong…" then his cellphone rang, and Taz wouldn't be surprised if it was Hazel.

And turned out she was right.

"Go get her, Joe. Your lady needs you."

Joe looked in deep in thought, staring at Taz with intense, puzzled eyes, searching for answers. "Why are you doing this, Taz?"

"Because I love you." She confessed. "And loving may mean giving up if you have to." Even if it hurts.

Taz waited steadfastly as Joe looked like he was weighing something, his face contorting into this facade of uncertainties. This was it. This was him deciding whether to stay… or leave. Taz or Hazel, Hazel or Taz. This was what Taz was dreading to see. Because she was certain, the odds didn't look so good on her end.

Joe heaved one last breath, got to his feet and flew out of the door.

And Taz sat there, letting go of the tears that had been dying to break away, lost in the pain.

********916143

Sitting by the furnace, Nikki sipped from her mug, staring idly into space. Maybe this was what hitting rock bottom felt like. The feeling of losing everything that you had protected for so long being thrown away for the world to carelessly play with and break, like a useless piece of toy. She felt like she risked losing a part of her being, a huge part of it, hoping something great would come out of it, that somehow didn't do her any good in the end at all; if anything, it felt like she just lost it, period. Did she get anything in return? No. What she got was Phil's cold face and that was that. Psh. Phil had been silent on their way home, too silent that Nikki suspected he was never, ever gonna talk to her again, which, frankly, was worse than she'd imagined. He had been a noisy pompous, ego-proud ass around Nikki who would make all these inappropriate comments about her clothes (or her ass), and Nikki was gonna miss all that, be they really extremely irritating sometimes. Because now, she was sure Phil wouldn't be as carefree around her as he used to.

The storm didn't seem to be planning on dying down any time soon as a thunder rumbled above her grim thoughts, turning her night even worse. She wished Joe would come home soon, so she wouldn't feel so alone. She wrapped the afghan around her, longing for some semblance of warmth to comfort her. Just then the door slammed open, and for some reason, Nikki was hoping to see Phil magically appear before her, take her in his arms and say "I love you, too, Nikki." She turned around and was half-relieved, half-disappointed to find Joe, soaking wet in his coat.

"You're up."

"You're late."

"Is Isabelle asleep?"

"Yeah. She was looking for you but I told her you were with her 'Mama.' Were you?"

Joe sighed sadly, dropping on the chair adjacent to Nikki's. "I was. But I left."

Nikki could sense a tone in Joe's voice that sounded much like the tone he used when he found Hazel's note on the refrigerator four years go. "Oh, my God, are you okay?"

"I don't know, Nikki. I don't know."

"What happened?" Was Joe crying? She leaned into him, cupping his kneecaps on her hands.

"I think Taz just broke up with me."

"What?" Nikki was puzzled. "You guys have barely even started, and you're breaking up? And what do you mean 'you think' she broke up with you?"

"I don't know. I don't know." He was saying in a drained voice like he was overthinking about this himself.

"Well, I wouldn't blame her if I were in her position."

"What?"

"Oh, come on, Joe." Nikki snapped. "Please don't tell me you haven't noticed that you're spending way too much time with Hazel."

"Well…" It looked like Joe was digesting this… and finally, the reality dawned on him. "Am I?"

"Are you crazy? Six days ago, you and Taz were acting like love-struck lovebirds, and all of a sudden, Hazel comes here and you're acting like… she's all the person in you life. Excuse us for having suspicions." It made Nikki wonder why she just now took the time to say this to Joe. "Joe, that woman left you. The mother of your child left you. Are you ever gonna learn the lesson?"

"But I'm not in love with her anymore." Joe stated with conviction.

"Oh, yeah? Then why are you acting like you are?"

"I'm not acting like I am; I'm not acting like anything!" Joe flared up, jolting to his feet. "What is it with you people jumping to that conclusion?"

"You can't blame us for believing what we see, Joe. Look, I know this is a vulnerable time for you. Hazel's back after all these years. But don't lose sight of the reality that you are committed to somebody else now."

"I haven't lost sight of that, Nikki. I… I… I gotta sit down." Joe looked weak in his own legs and resolved to sit down again.

It was time to get to business. "Joe, are getting back together with Hazel?"

"Oh, God." Joe covered his face.

"Well, are you?"

His hands left his face. "She passed out tonight. That's why I came home late; I took her to the clinic." He said, his voice free of emotions.

"Is she okay?" Nikki didn't care, but felt obligated to ask.

"She's had a panic attack."

"What?"

Nikki noticed the shocking paleness in Joe's face, how all blood disappeared from it. He looked like he might throw up. "And Taz was saying all these… things… when I got the call from Hazel. I was disoriented and I just had to leave."

"You left Taz in a middle of a fight because you got a phone call from Hazel?" Nikki asked, astounded beyond belief by her brother's idiocy. "You are the dumbest person in the world, Joe."

"Don't you think I am aware of that now?" Joe sank back in his chair, staring at nothing in particular, looking like he had the world on his shoulders. "What am I gonna do, Nichole?"

Nikki took his brother's face in her hands and said, "Before that, let me ask you one thing. Are you over Hazel?"

Joe nodded his head, although Nikki could sense the slight apprehension.

"Can you honestly say to yourself that you're ready to let go of the past and open your heart again?"

"I have let go of my past, Nikki. Taz is my Tazmanian Devil now." Joe smiled helplessly.

"Then you tell her you love her, Phil."

Joe's eyebrow's curled, ruining the only melodramatic moment of their lives. Oh, crap. "Phil?"

"I…I mean… I mean Joe." Nikki bit her lip savagely. "You tell her you love her, Joe."

Joe narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Nikki. "What happened to you?" Now it looked they were about to switch roles.

"You already have a problem of your own, Joe. The last thing you need is my romantic crisis."

"No fair." Joe insisted stubbornly. "At least I know I'm not the only whose life sucks right about now."

Nikki took a deep breath, deciding that it was best to tell her brother. "I told Phil I love him.'

Joe seemed to need a moment in order to take this in. "Wow." He muttered under his breath. "You did it, sis."

"Yeah." She agreed lifelessly. "But he didn't say it back."

"Hell no."

Nikki shook her head, a humorless smile playing across her lips. "Hell yes."

"What's happening to us, Nikki? What did we do to the world to make it hate us this much?"

"I messed up, you messed up. Dadadada." Nikki sing-songed. "You wanna get drunk?"

"No."

"Pussy."

"Huh." Joe laughed limply. "It took you forever to tell Phil how you feel, and you're calling me a pussy?"

"Well, look where that got me. I don't even know how I'm gonna face him tomorrow, or the day after that." Nikki released a breath that she'd been holding. "How am I gonna make him magically forget what I said? I mean, I completely humiliated myself."

Out of nowhere, Nikki started crying, silently, but still. She felt pathetic, misunderstood, alone. Joe wrapped one arm around her and let her bawl into his shoulder. "Stupid, heartless guy." She mumbled between sobs.

"We're gonna go through this, Nikki. It's not too late." Joe said soothingly.

"You think so?" Nikki looked up at him, her eyes wet with tears, voice choked up.

"What do you think?"

"I don't know. I do know that I wanna die, though."

"Shut up."

"What about you? What you do you think?"

"I think… I think I'm stupid."

They both laughed. "You're not wrong about that, Joe." Nikki said, only half-jokingly. "Seriously, though. Are you getting back together with Hazel?"

Before Joe could answer, a small figure appeared behind them in the darkened room. "Daddy?"

Joe turned around to see a drowsy Isabelle dragging her Tazmanian Devil stuffed toy along. "Hey, baby. Why are you up?"

"I can't sleep because of the storm." She said, climbing on her daddy's lap. "Is Aunt Nikki crying?"

"No." Nikki rushed to wipe all the tears away from her face. "Something got my eye."

"I had a dream of you and Mama fighting, Daddy. I don't like it."

"You did, huh?" Joe asked thoughtfully, brushing her hair.

Isabelle nodded her head.

Nikki nudged Joe's rib, mouthing "Well, are you?" as if to continue what she had asked before.

"No, Nikki." He said, sounding exhausted. "I'm not getting back together with Hazel. This has been all a misconception."

"Then what is going on?" Nikki asked, exasperated herself.

Joe looked like he was pondering deeply on something he preferred to keep to himself. And then he turned his eyes to Isabelle, who was looking back at him, as though knowing he was about to disclose something that involved her. Joe took a deep breath and said, "I love Isabelle's mama, that's what's going on."

Huh. Nikki loved Phil, too… but that was a whole 'nother story. That was a whole another, more painful story. Unrequited love sure does suck. "So there's no wedding?"

Joe sighed. "You really wanna know the truth?"

Nikki scoffed exasperatedly. "Hell yes I wanna know the truth."

"Alright, I'll tell you the truth.

*********916143

Nikki knew this day would be a disaster, but she decided to keep quiet about it. They were gonna have one last get-together at Joe's place before the big day in Vegas. And surely the whole bunch would be there, including, of course, Hazel, who seemed to have a big "announcement" to make, that Nikki unceremoniously already knew about, and it would just be total chaos all over again. Only this time, the atmosphere would be much, much more tensed, considering Joe and Taz had been in nonspeaking terms for the past two days and well, Phil still hadn't shown Nikki any sign of recognition himself ever since that night they kissed. It was impossible how they were gonna go through this day without sweating in their clothes, and fidgeting in their own feet.

Taz refused to go at first, saying she had a lot errands to run, and a little dignity to save, but Nikki used all excuses she could find in the world to get her to come, one of which Taz had bought finally, Isabelle; why, of course.

"Hey." Taz walked over to her where Nikki was painstakingly checking on the barbecue in the grilling table – Joe wouldn't eat them if they were burnt in the slightest degree. Nikki looked up, wiping her hand over her sweating forehead.

"Finally, you're here." Nikki sighed. "Those idiots left me with the cooking."

"You need any help?" Taz offered, putting her bottle of wine down.

"Hey, is that for us?"

"Yeah, I'm not really an expert when it comes to wine but Gracie says this is good enough to pass for y'all's cheap taste." Taz laughed a little bit.

"Gee, you're sweet, thanks." Nikki chided sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Put it in the chiller over there."

Taz was quiet the whole time while she and Nikki hovered around the patio, careful to avoid any subject that would surely lead to Joe, or their, quote unquote "relationship". Nikki wanted to have some heart-to-heart conversation with her, to ask her what happened, and to help straighten things out and make them appear clearer to Taz. She wanted to get her to say something, anything, pertaining to the break-up, but Taz seemed strongly determined to stray from it. So Nikki pretended that she was interested in Taz's babble on her theories about Supermario saving mankind.

Nikki was evading Phil, too. As much as possible, she'd avoid any circumstance at all that would leave them in the company of each other. He was considerate enough to smile at her from a distance, though, the smile that can launch a thousand ships and some, that would put Helen into shame, albeit very subtly and controlled. Nikki was tempted to smile back, but then he looked away and resumed having a conversation with Kevin, who was wearing a plane white shirt with a noticeable letter "I" on it; that was weird. Because she saw Ben earlier wearing a shirt with a letter "U" on it. Okay, she was overanalyzing this. Time to get to the issue.

She hoped there was a way that she could read Phil's mind right now and see what he was thinking. Was he still having thoughts about that firey, steamy kiss that they shared two days ago? Or did he completely forget about it because Nikki ruined the sexy mood by breaking the truth out to him? She was thinking about that kiss every chance that she could get, and no matter how impossibly hard she tried to push it out of her stubborn head, it just kept coming back. Like one of those recurring nightmares that used to haunt you incessantly when you were a kid. Being in love and hate and regret and pain and frustration and humiliation all at the same time was not quite easy.

"Mama!" Taz turned around to see Isabelle running towards her in a wild yellow skirt.

"Hey, Belles!" She picked the little girl into her arms, her day turning out not as hopeless as she had expected. "Did you miss me?"

"Yeah…" Isabelle gave a little pout that was too adorable to resist. "But I had fun at Grandma's too! We went to Disney Land and to the circus and I met Tazmanian Devil!"

"Aww, you did?"

Taz listened as Isabelle shared everything, as in everything, every single random detail in, again, that adorable Isabelle way. Then she ended all of it with an "I wish you and Daddy were there."

Tension in the air again. Suddenly Taz didn't know what to say. How was she gonna tell Isabelle that "you and Daddy" no longer existed? Obviously Joe hadn't mentioned about it to her in his own time.

"Belles, why don't you go and be a pain-in-the-butt somewhere else?" Nikki quipped in an attempt to save Taz and her face. "I see Uncle Ben's hand is empty. Go, go, go!"

So clueless little Isabelle climbed off of Taz's arms and ran away to make a scene in another crowd, Ben's, actually, to be more specific. Taz sighed as she took her eyes away from Isabelle's telling Ben something that in her own words, "couldn't wait."

"How am I gonna tell her, Nikki?"

"That you and Joe have just broken up and will never, ever, in the wings of time, be back together again?"

Taz gave Nikki a strange look. "Yeah, I guess you can put it that way."

"You and my brother are still gonna be friends, right?"

Taz wasn't certain about the possibility of that. If it were up to her, of course, she'd still wanna keep connections with Joe, however entirely platonic, but the question was: would Joe still want the same thing after what she'd said to him two nights ago? Taz stared into space, absorbed in her own head when Nikki snapped her fingers in front of her seemingly blank eyes. "Earth to Taz. Hello?"

"If faith allows it, why not?" Taz was going to miss the passionate kisses, the late-night chats about everything under the sun, all the cuddling, the teasing, the times when Joe would just step into the line of humiliation and sing off-key to a love song (his favorite was Total Eclipse of the Heart) and as crazy as couples could go, Taz would join in and both of them would be creating total chaotic noise around the house. "And I need you here tonight, and I need you more than ever." The memory made her laugh. Yes, Taz would surely miss all of those… but like she said, if faith allowed that they could be friends still, why not? At least she and Joe would still be talking, laughing at each other's jokes, even if by then he'd be married to somebody else, and by "somebody else" she meant the beautiful, sophisticated Hazel. Taz looked at Nikki with sad, mourning eyes, because if she was ever sadder in her life, she couldn't remember when.

Nikki understood and gave her a comforting hug. "It'll be okay, Taz. I know it will."

Taz's eyebrows knotted together at the heavy conviction in Nikki's voice. This wasn't one of those times where people told her all these soothing words just for the sake of it, and usually, in her spite. This was real. This was Nikki, the realest person she'd ever known, trying to convey something to her. Taz pulled away from the embrace and faced Nikki with curious eyes. "What do you mean?"

"You'll know what I mean soon." Nikki smiled, a mysterious smile, and turned away to get something inside.

Taz found herself in a silent trance again, until, before her very eyes, she got a clear view of Joe having a seemingly engrossing chat with someone – Taz didn't really have enough time to check who that someone was because she was too busy paying every morsel of attention to Joe, Joe who looked irresistibly gorgeous in a pair of khaki shorts, and a sky blue tee with the words "I love Taz" and an image of Tazmanian Devil himself etched across it. His dimple was on display with every smile, and his hands were inside his pockets; this humble stance was too _Joe_ for Taz to take. She couldn't believe how much she'd missed him. It had only been two days but inside those forty-eight hours that seemed to have gone by too slowly, Taz had moments of panic insanity attacks where she would have impulsive decisions of calling Joe and begging him to come back to her. She was having that moment now. Taking a deep breath, she got to her unsteady feet and began to walk in his direction. Just then something stirred in her line of vision and her eyes fell on the hand that intimately grabbed Joe's.

Hazel.

Why, of course, how could she have been so stupid to miss her? That someone who Taz had considered so insignificant was Hazel, the girl who was, ironically enough, the most significant person in their lives. Taz stopped dead in her tracks as Joe and Hazel shared a hearty laugh, her hand now on his arm, and saw, with painful defeat, the glaring diamond adorning it: the engagement ring. Damn in, Taz wanted to run away from here.

Nikki went back out with two bottles of beer; she handed one to Taz. "You know what's weird?"

"What?" Taz asked, taking a sip.

"I got an A for my pictures."

"Oh, Nikki, that's great!"

Nikki shook her head. "No. It's not, because I didn't hand in the chrysanthemum photos that I was telling you about. You know what I sent?"

"What?"

"Phil's stolen shots."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Nikki sounded tired. "I did it because… well, truth is, I don't know why I did it. But it felt good for a change to submit something you'd know you'd get an F for." She paused. "Weirdly enough, Mr. Downy loved the photo. He said he liked the rawness and the genuineness of it so much that I'm exempted from our finals. Weird but true story."

"It's not weird, Nikki. Phil's got a cute smile; anyone with normal eyes would fall in love with it."

Nikki suddenly had a nasty knot in her stomach when she heard the mention of Phil and love in the same sentence. She'd do anything for this end so that by the next day, she'd have none of Phil and his lingering memory already. She hoped, too, that Phil would die in Vegas.

"Yeah, whatever."

"I got a feeling something happened between you two." Taz was still clueless about everything – the kiss, the confession, the rejection. Nikki was too embarrassed by what had happened that she decided against telling anyone except her brother.

"Well, in that case, throw that feeling away." Nikki advised nonchalantly, sipping from her bottle. "Come on, we have to get these ready." Taz looked at the barbecue flaunting so temptingly in front her. Never in her life had her appetite been made so inadequate, though.

As they all went to the summer dining hall that Joe and the guys set up outside by the backyard, veins crawling its way around the white-painted frame, Taz wondered idly what purpose she served in this little gathering. Yes, she was Nikki's friend, and Isabelle saw her in this special, motherly way, but she wasn't connected to the others in any other way except Joe, Joe who didn't seem aware of her existence anymore. So what the hell was she doing here? What?

She looked at Nikki for answer, who was sitting across her, and who was, surprisingly enough, sitting next to Phil.

It made Nikki blink over and over again as she felt Phil drag the chair next to hers and sit on it. If Phil had any mercy at all, he wouldn't that. He wouldn't purposefully go out of his way and make Nikki feel as rotten as she was now. No, if Phil had any mercy at all, he'd fly to Vegas, or to Mars, for all she cared, and hide himself someplace where Nikki could never, ever, see him and his shadow again.

And then the whole familiar riot began; food being passed along, people having their own mini-conversations like they had a channel of their own, Rynan leading the meeting with his ever-fresh anecdotes, while Nikki, and now, Taz, an addition to the crowd, kept their silence as they chewed their food. Hazel had a lot to say, too. About work, yes, work, since she was an accomplished careerwoman, (show-off!), about life in Paris, and about all nonsense that there was to talk about.

Dessert was already being served when she ceremoniously got to her feet, wine glass clasped in her hand, making every head in the little room turn to her direction. Taz caught the look of fulfillment in Joe's eyes as he gazed fondly at her. She obviously had something important to share with everyone.

"I have something important to share with everyone."

Huh. Call Taz a mindreader. What is Hazel gonna say next? That she's getting married?

"I'm getting married."

Bingo. Taz would've celebrated and congratulated herself right now for being too smart, but preparing yourself to hear the worst nightmare of your life didn't really give a festive mood. She waited steadfastly for the "I'm getting married with Joe" to come. No, Taz wanted to stand up and run away. And leave, and go back to New York where she could leave all of this behind her.

Taz felt so miserable she didn't notice the congratulatory cheers that the boys were showering Hazel with. Alright, this is it, she was really leaving. She knew it was unforgivably disrespectful but she stood up, wiping her mouth with a napkin, and turned to leave.

And the noise died down, and all eyes followed her.

"Taz, where are you going?" Hazel asked.

She didn't know why but she stayed planted to the ground, her feet unable to move any inches farther. Something was telling her to stay, and to say something, anything. "I can't do this." She paused, her back to them. "I thought I could sit there and watch you tell everyone that you and Joe are gonna get married, but I can't. I…. I have to go."

"Taz, wait!" Hazel's voice rang with concern. "You think me and Joe are getting married?"

This made Taz head turn around. "Well, aren't you?"

Hazel looked like she was about to laugh. "No."

"No?"

"No. Taz, I am getting married to the president of the company that my family owns." Hazel explained, the fondness in her tone evident.

"What?"  
"His name is Henry Goodall. And he's flying here tomorrow." She sounded proud. "And I am glad to say to all that Henry has agreed that we stay here in Sacramento for good. Isn't that great?"

Again, congratulatory cheers boomed into the air as Taz's brain sought for way to function again. Thankfully the attention wasn't on her anymore because everyone was getting to their feet to give Hazel their happy hugs. Taz stood there, frozen, washed over by a wave of overwhelming revelation.

So this is what 'bursting the bubble' really felt like. Taz felt a surge of emotions as Joe slowly, majestically emerged from the crowd… like a phoenix rising from the ashes, and marched gracefully towards her. "I wore this shirt for a reason, you know." was his opening statement.

"You got a lot of explaining to do."

"You didn't let me explain, that was your problem."

"Huh." Taz rolled her eyes.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For giving you the feeling that I didn't care about you."

"You should be."

"And I am."

Taz stepped closer to Joe and looped her arms around his waist, looking into his eyes. "And I forgive you. I'm sorry, too, for jumping to conclusions, the wrong ones."

"Yeah, I know."

"Jerk." She pinched his nose.

"Ow." He pushed her hand gently away. "You told Haze that you were Isabelle's babysitter."

"Wasn't I?"

"Did I ever make you feel that you were? Taz, please, tell me because if I did, I will never forgive myself…"

"Shhh… It's okay, Joe. You had nothing to do with it. Your baby just loves me too damn much." Taz quipped with playful pride.

"So does her dad." Joe smiled sweetly, the magical dimple displaying itself irresistibly.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"Because I didn't wanna seem desperate, duh?" Okay, this was too _Joe _not to love. Taz would've laughed if she didn't feel too romantically blissful right now.

"I should've known I was hotter than Hazel." Taz made a joke of her own, unable to help it.

"ha-ha-ha." Joe leaned his forehead against Taz's, descending his lips to hers so their mouths were nuzzling each other. "Yes, you are."

"I love you, Joe." She breathed the words into his mouth.

And then they kissed, kissed like the world was theirs, only to be met by the applause and catcalls from their audience who had actually been scheming enough to stay quiet the whole time to catch the whole action. Nikki felt happy for Taz – at least someone had a happy ending today. It took all self-restraint not to tell Taz the truth herself, but she had made a promise to Joe that she'd keep her mouth shut, and unlike her brother, she knew how to keep promises.

And in the middle of all the cheering, she felt something warm on her hand, strong, calloused fingers placed above hers. It was a hand. It was Phil's hand. Her heart beat faster, her mind raced, as well, until it halted at one thought: Phil was holding her hand.

The United States of America was suffering from economic crisis, Iraqi soldiers were still fighting war for independence, and Paris Hilton was still the richest, most scandalous thing in Hollywood, but Nikki didn't care anymore.

Phil was holding her hand. And that was the only thing that seemed to matter at the moment.

With a surge of courage, she lifted her eyes to find Phil staring back at her. His eyes were warm, gentle, telling her all that she needed to know. Phil's intense look morphed into a breath-taking smile, turning her heart up-side-down. What was going on here?

And as if on their cue, Kevin and Ben arranged themselves and stood against each other, and slowly Phil took of his jacket to reveal his white shirt with a big red heart in it. Curiously, Nikki looked at Phil as he positioned himself in the middle of the guys. They had these huge, expectant smiles on their faces like they were anticipating a reaction from her any time soon. But Nikki didn't quite get it. Then Rynan hurried to stand next to Ben with a "Hey, don't forget about me!" Rynan scrambled to arrange his shirt and to free it from creases.

That's when it hit Nikki.

She looked at them from a smarter standpoint and saw the properly ordered letters in their shirts. Kevin for the "I", Phil for the big red heart, Ben for the "U" and well, Rynan for the "2."

In short, "I love you, too."

Was Nikki supposed to be drifting in happiness or laughing at his cheesiness right now?

She smiled, her heart warning to a momentary explosion, and shook her head, saying "This is really corny of you getting the boys to do something like this for you."

"That's it? It's corny?" Phil whined. "No 'I love you' back?"

"Phil, come here." She reached out for Phil's hand, and Phil, somewhat curious, hesitantly took it and let himself be dragged along as Nikki took them somewhere more private. The catcalls were there. They never missed.

"What are you doing?" Nikki asked, folding her arms and one eyebrow raised.

"What do you think am I doing?" Phil sounded coy, but truthful. Either way, Nikki wanted to kiss him.

"It's no joke telling me that you love me, Phil. Because if you say that love you me, then I'm gonna have to keep you."

"Good then. Because I was hoping for just that." Phil braced both arms in Nikki's sides, entrapping her, sending a sense of property, which Nikki didn't have any problem with.

"Seriously, Phil. I've spent two days of my life wondering how on earth we'll be back to the way we were. Because two days ago, I made the biggest mistake of my life telling you that I love you." It felt good to release all of this bottled-up frustration to him. Especially to him.

"It wasn't a mistake, Nikki." Phil's body moved closer to hers but she pushed him away at the chest.

"Oh, yeah? I made a complete fool of myself. I was starting to get all emotional and shit and you just had to go and reject me in my face."

"I didn't reject you."

"Well, silence doesn't really mean yes, does it?"

"Well, it doesn't mean no, either." Huh. He had a point. Nikki's pessimism began to waver.

"Okay, I was freaked out of my head when you said it. But it didn't mean I wasn't feeling the same." Phil explained, bringing more and more light to her darkened ding-dong of a head. "All it took was two days for me to figure myself out. Thanks to you and your misplaced 'I love you.'"

"Misplaced?"

"I wasn't quite ready yet, Nikki." Phil leaned in so their noses were touching. "But I am now."

"Did you really have to get the guys to be in the middle of this?" Nikki asked, her tone fond.

"Hey, it was their idea, I swear." He defended, his lips merely an inch away from hers.

Nikki's breath hitched. It made her look back two days ago, how she had been afraid, lonely, miserable, never a thought in her mind that this day would come. And then now. Phil was telling her all that she wanted to hear, her body floating above the ground in this crazy, euphoric rush. She was surprised as to how one girl's fate could change in a one hundred eighty degree turn-around in just a span of countable hours. It felt like an out-of-body experience.

She wanted to say it to him. Again. "I love you."

"I", kiss, "love" another kiss, "you" another kiss again, "too…" this time Nikki captured Phil's mouth in a deep, slow kiss, forgetting about everything else.

When Phil let her up for breath, Nikki grabbed his hands and placed his arms around her waist, her own arms loosely around his neck. "This day is turning out to be not such a bad day after all."

Phil expressed his agreement by placing a light-feather kiss on Nikki's nose.

"Phil, if you're gonna be in a relationship with me, you're gonna have to promise that you'll be less of a jerk."

"I can do that."

"You're also have gonna have to kiss me every now and then."

"Nah, I think I'm gonna have to pass on that." Phil shook his head, getting a slap on arm.

"See? This is exactly what I'm talking about. You can't take anything seriously. You can't take _me_ seriously." Nikki whined childishly.

Phil laughed, amusement in his eyes. "Chillax, babe. Who needs serious if you'll be getting much of the swaggerlove?"

"Good answer." Nikki smiled, leaning in and kissing Phil into silence one more time.

Nikki was right. This day turned out to be a disaster, but in a good, happy-ending kind of way. Insert big smiles here

******* Love is in the air!

"I don't want you to leave." Nikki announced in a serious, desperate tone.

It was already nighttime but here she was, locked inside Phil's room and not planning on going home anytime soon.

Phil put down the sweater that he'd been about to cramp into his already-full luggage, and sighed. "Nikki, we already discussed about this. We'll be back in three days anyway."

Nikki let out a hopeless breath and fell ungracefully down Phil's bed, back flat against the soft mattress, half her legs dangling off the bed. "But I'm gonna miss you." Okay, desperation wasn't exactly sexy and appealing, which was the look that she had been making attempts to go for at the moment, but who needed sexy when you're begging and pleading your boyfriend to stay and cancel his trip to Vegas.

"I'm gonna miss you, too." Phil finally sat down the bed and caressed Nikki's bare leg. "But I don't think there's a way I can back out now; your brother's gonna kill me, Fred's gonna kill me." Fred was Phi's older brother, who was also the crew's road manager, "Or worse, they're gonna gang rape me."

"Eww, that's disgusting." Nikki giggled, flinging her hanging legs up and down. "Phil, ignore me and my whining, okay? This is me just being totally out of line. I know you can't cancel; you've been waiting for this for too long, and a girlfriend's selfish request is just not as important." Sheesh. She was now Phil's girlfriend. The thought made her heart flutter in joy.

"I'm not saying that; it's just…" Phil came to a pause, "Hey, you're my girlfriend."

"I know." Nikki agreed with too much fervor.

"You know I wanna stay, Nik. I wanna stay here and kiss you and make love to you…" Phil turned his head around and was met by Nikki's hungry lips. The 'make love to you' part was dangerous enough to trigger and light her flame again. For once, could they have a conversation that didn't end up in kissing? They had been in each other's mouths the whole day that Nikki's lips felt sore.

"But you can't." Nikki finished phrasing Phil's sentence for him, pulling back from the kiss. "It's something that I'm not okay with, Phil. But it is something that I can deal with. Three days is nothing. We have survived years and years of not kissing, so this should be really easy."

"Are you sure?" Phil teased, narrowing his eyes mischievously.

"Yeah." Nikki acquiesced. "Hey, don't you look at me with that mocking face, Phil Tayag. I know how to deal with my urges. You, on the other hand…"

"Oh, no, no, no. I'll be fine. There are tons of chicks in Vegas that will be wanting to have a piece of this."

"Jerk!" She clocked his head, hitting him hard.

"That hurt. You're gonna pay for that." Nikki caught Phil's scheming, predatory eyes and scrambled away.

"No… Phil, not tonight, please?" She futilely shielded herself from Phil with a pillow, and he slowly, cautiously climbed to the bed, the way a killer studied his prey. He inched his way over to Nikki, causing her to yelp in delight at the unexpected touch. Then Phil understood, and Nikki understood, and soon both of them were sharing a soft, shy kiss. Phil crawled between her legs and Nikki moaned at the erotic feeling of his weight crushing her body underneath. "Joe told me to wait till tomorrow, but I don't think I can wait any longer." Phil hummed against her neck, his warm breath fanning her sensitive skin.

"Joe?" Nikki wondered for a second why Phil would talk to Joe about 'doing the nasty' with her. She was his sister, for Christ's sake.

Just then Phil reached out for something in the bedside desk, making Nikki fidget with nervousness. This was it. They were gonna do it. Nikki closed her eyes and tried to breathe in a steady, normal rhythm. She wouldn't want her heart overreacting again. When she fluttered her eyes open, she was surprised to see not a piece of plastic wrapper, but a piece of paper with yellow prints.

"What's that?"

"It's a ticket for two to Vegas."

"Huh?" Phil smiled meaningfully and Nikki's breath hitched, the reality gradually dawning on her. "Phil…"

"You're going to Sin City with me, baby."

"Oh, God." This day couldn't get possibly get any better. Nikki felt the wide smile on her face, grinning from ear to ear. "You and my brother arranged this?"

"Yeah, he's a genius. He's getting one for Taz, too."

Nikki laughed, showering Phil's face with baby kisses. "Guys do have a way of hiding scheming plans."

"Yes, we do."

"You sexy, naughty monster."

"Can I keep you till I get tired of you?" Phil teased, placing a feather-light kiss on Nikki's nose. "You know… forever?"

Nikki pulled Phil down for a searing kiss, dying to pick up where they left off, when her phone rang inside her pockets.

"Your phone is vibrating against my crotch." Phil said sullenly against Nikki's mouth. She laughed and crawled out from under him, laughing. "Oops. I'm sorry."

She got to her feet and walked out of the room and over to the balcony, leaving Phil all by himself. She reached inside for her phone and smiled when she saw '_Taz calling_' on the display. "Well, hello, Mrs. Larot."

"Hi, Mrs. Tayag."

From the sound of her voice, Nikki could tell Taz just got from a make-out session with her brother, which wasn't as tormenting as she had expected. Okay, they were both sick in love at the moment, who could blame them?

"I haven't had the chance to talk to you after the party. Phil dragged away me with him."

"I can totally, totally understand." Taz sounded dreamy too. Mmm. Nikki hoped she didn't sound as silly as that.

"So what have you naughty children been up to over there?"

Taz giggled. "Joe told him I'm giving him ecs-tazee. Get it? Ecs-tazee?"

Okay, seriously, Nikki wanted to gag. "That's… priceless."

"I know." Taz sighed, all woozy and lovesick.

"So, you and I are going to Vegas, huh?"

"Yes, we are, girlfriend!" Taz slurred. "We've got the best boyfriends in the world and I am getting drunk tonight!"

"Are you on drugs or something?" Nikki laughed.

"I don't know. Maybe." Nikki shook her head as Taz giggled helplessly on the other line.

"So… are you and Phil getting your freak on tonight?"

Nikki blushed and covered the earpiece, as though Phil could hear their conversation, looking back at the room. "I have a feeling that this is gonna be a good night. What about you? Are you feeling lucky over there?"

"Mmm…" Taz was moaning. Taz was moaning. On the phone. Nikki's face grimaced in horror as Joe's voice could be heard in the background. Nikki couldn't hear everything but she could make out the "come here, baby…" and Taz's incessant giggles as though Joe was tickling the madness out of her.

Nikki rolled her eyes, a smile already creeping on her face. "Taz, it seems to me that you're not in the mood to talk. I'm going to hang up now."

"No, Nikki, don't do that!" There was a little commotion again and Nikki could hear Taz saying "Joe, what are you doing?" in a distant voice and it wasn't long before Joe's voice came clear through the earpiece. "Hey, Nik. Can you call later? We're kinda busy here."

"Ugh." Nikki scoffed. Wasn't Taz the one who gave the call? "Joe, please go easy on her tonight."

Joe laughed. "I love you, sis. You and Phil have fun over there. And by fun, I mean…"

"I get it. Whatever."

"It's gonna be a loooong night…" Joe was saying with a hint of monkey business, and Taz was screaming something into the phone that sounded like "Bye, Nikki! Behave!" before hanging up.

Nikki sighed and put the phone back inside her pockets, reveling in contented flutter in her stomach. She remembered her own muse waiting for her inside the room and smiled like the world was on her fingertips. Long night indeed.

END


End file.
